Choices Have Consequences
by i-like-writing-stories
Summary: Emma and Louis always felt like their home was on a plane, I mean they were on one every few months traveling back and forth between Paris and New York, but I guess that's what happens when your parents are divorced and one decides to move across the world. Emma often wonders why her parents dislike each other so much, and if there was any way to save what they had ten years ago.
1. Chapter 1

Master Fu quickly looked up from his spot on the ground where he was meditating and glanced back to his window overlooking the streets of Paris. The sound of cars passing and muffled voices of people was all that filled the air. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet the man narrowed his eyes as he continued to look out the window. He could feel something, it was close…

"Master?" a soft voice questioned.

Master Fu turned his head toward the small voice. "Sorry, Wayzz. I felt… Nevermind..."

The little turtle kwami shook his head, "No Master. I felt it too, a great evil was near."

Master Fu sighed, "Yes, Wayzz. I haven't felt a presence like that since…" He closed his eyes taking a deep sigh before looking back at Wayzz. "We must warn the others…. before it's too late."

Wayzz sighed, "But without a Ladybug…"

The wise master nodded, "I know Wayzz. We are in danger but with the team unbalanced… I fear what may happen." He looked off toward the window again, afraid to leave it unguarded. He knew what he needed to do. "Come, we must speak to them."

The old man stood slowly, reaching for his cane that was leaning against the wall. Once he neared the doorway, he gave one last look at the apartment. As Wayzz hid in his shirt, Master Fu narrowed his eyes at the window once more before closing the door behind him.

Soon after the door shut, a dark figure appeared in the window. It rose up slowly, turning the entire apartment to black. In mere seconds it was gone, leaving behind no evidence that it was ever there in the first place.

"Emma…"

The blonde girl let out a loud sigh before banging her head against the table in front of her, ponytail swaying slightly from the sudden movement. She left her head there for a moment before her blue eyes finally looked back up to the laptop screen and stared at the blank page in front of her. She sighed and blew her bangs slightly out of her face.

"You have got to be kidding me. I can't do this." She leaned back, crossing her arms, and opened her mouth to speak once more. However, before she could get a word out, her brother interrupted, chuckling behind her. Emma quickly glared over her shoulder at the dark haired boy who was smirking at her from the leather couch, his own laptop in his lap and notebook sitting next to him. The room was relatively big and had large windows that let plenty of light stream in. Emma often wished they had a bit more privacy, however when her mom chose the apartment, Emma was only eight years old and in Paris with her dad.

"Don't patronize me, you would not believe the paper I have to write by the end of today."

The boy shrugged, "It's fun seeing you struggle, seeing as I'm already working on my finals. What does your paper have to be about?"

Louis set the laptop down next to him and stretched his arms over his head before walking over to his sister, fixing his glasses slightly as he went. Emma rolled her eyes. Of course, he was going to be smart about it. Then again, Louis was pretty good at helping with homework, even though you would never be heard it from her.

"Other than the table? Don't act like you're my teacher or something. I'm the older sibling, I know what I'm doing," she said, putting her nose in the air and crossing her arms.

The boy stared at Emma for second before shrugging, "Fine." Louis turned around, heading back to his spot on the couch.

Emma bit her lip, looking at her brother and the paper before she groaned. "Wait!" She said, leaning back in the chair, defeated. "Fine, I just…"

Louis turned around, crossing his arms and narrowing his bright green eyes at his big sister. As he stood there waiting for her to reply, Emma bit her lip thinking of what to say.

"Well?" Louis said, keeping his stance.

Emma sighed slowly turning back toward the laptop once again. "It wants me to write a paper about how our decisions can affect the lives of others. I feel like I should know a lot about that, you know? I just can't write it…" The girl closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

Louis' eyes softened for his older sister, and he nodded in understanding, "I get that… and I know what you're thinking, but maybe it's best that you write about you? I know it seems really tempting to write about mom, dad, and everything..."

Emma nodded, "But that not what they are asking for…"

Louis smiled, "Exactly. Maybe just write the general effects of living with divorced parents. Just don't be… too detailed, you know?"

Emma grinned back, "For only thirteen, you sure are knowledgeable, little brother."

Louis laughed, "Hey, one of us had to get it."

Emma smacked him on the arm, "For a second I thought we were getting along."

Louis laughed again, "Well yeah, that's why I had to ruin it."

Emma stuck her tongue out at Louis as he retreated back to his laptop, then turned around and stared once more at that the blank document before she began typing.

The decisions that we make can affect everyone, especially those closest to you. One decision that affects most families would be divorce. It can be hard on both sides of the family but the ones that I believe it affects the most are the children from the marriage. They are stuck in the middle, with nowhere to go, except back and forth. Sometimes it can cause them to feel as though they are being forced to choose a side.

Emma sighed, staring at her writing, then shook her head in disapproval and deleting the whole thing. It didn't feel right. It still felt too personal, to opinion based. Was that what they wanted? She started to type again when suddenly they heard the front door open.

"Kids! I'm home!" A female voiced yelled. Emma quickly closed her laptop, jumping out of her seat. A big smile spread across her face as she ran out of the office and into the living room to see her mom coming in with a big brown bag and a thin box underneath.

"Did you bring it?" Emma asked desperately, following her mom into the kitchen.

"Well hello to you too," Marinette said, setting her things down on the counter and coming over to pull her daughter into a big hug. "I missed you."

Emma laughed, "You literally saw me this morning."

Marinette smiled as she pulled her dark hair into a ponytail that barely reached past her shoulders. Fixing her white blouse, she responded to the blonde girl. "I know! But this time next week, I won't be able to bring home your favorite pizza for months."

Emma rolled her eyes, "Mom… you do this every time. We'll be back after Easter. Plus we still have the new year to celebrate."

"Ah yes, the most important Holiday of them all." Marinette teased.

Emma shook her head, "Literally just to New York."

Marinette laughed, "True as that may be, you know you love watching the ball drop from the window."

Emma smiled, looking over toward the window where you could hear the hustle and bustle of New York City. They were pretty high up, so it was hard to see any people, but you could still see some of the signs since their apartment was pretty far down in Time Square. Her mom had been living in this apartment since Emma was eight and she had seen the ball drop a handful of times. Unfortunately not every year, since she and Louis switched back and forth between New York and Paris for the main holiday.

"You got me…" Emma admitted, looking back at her mom. "Now, can I pretty please have my pizza? I swear, I will have this every day while I'm still here!"

Marinette laughed, "We are sharing this pizza, Emma. Go get your brother so we can all eat."

Emma shook her head in mock disappointment, "Why do you enjoy crushing my dreams?"

Marinette giggled as the dramatics of her older child as Emma headed back into the office to get her brother.

"So did anything interesting happen today?" Marinette asked, looking between her two children who were sitting across from her at the big dining table.

Emma shrugged, "Mr. Morrison came over this morning and asked us to help him find his cat again."

Marinette laughed, "Isn't that the third time this week?"

Louis groaned, "Yeah, I'm starting to think that cat isn't getting lost anymore... I think it's trying to get away."

Emma agreed, "I mean, when an old man names you Mr. Figabottom, I'd probably try to escape too."

Marinette shook her head, taking another bite of pepperoni pizza, "Did you guys get a lot of school work done today?"

Louis nodded, "I'm almost to the exams. I'm going to try to get them done before we leave for Paris."

Emma spoke, her mouth full of pizza, "Yeah, I'm almost done with all of my classes, except Chemistry, but I was going to wait until I get to Paris, so dad-" Emma stopped her sentence, coughing. "Until I get back to Paris so I can focus on getting my other classes done?" Emma grabbed her pizza again sticking it into her mouth, taking another large bite.

Marinette raised an eyebrow, staring at Emma for a second, who refused to make eye contact, "So your dad can help you?"

Emma glanced sideways at Louis who stuck up his hands as if saying, It's on you. Emma looked back at her mom, nodding before chewing and swallowing the pizza.

Marinette shook her head, "You know you can talk to me about him, right?"

Emma raised her eyebrows, "What happened to a couple months ago with that whole spiel over the phone about how you don't want to know or hear anything about dad? I mean, that's why I haven't brought him up these last three months."

Marinette sighed, "I just get sad when you guys aren't here. I apologized right after, Emma. It's just hard not being able to be with you guys all the time. You understand that, right?"

Emma looked away, "Yeah…"

Marinette smiled sadly, "Come on, this is one of our last dinners together. Let's make it count, okay?"

Emma smiled back, looking over at Louis who nodded. "Okay," Emma said, looking back at her mom with sad eyes.

Emma sat, working on her paper again. She glanced over what she had written so far. It wasn't much, that was for sure. She kept it generic, speaking only in the general sense of divorce. Louis had left her alone in the office so he could watch tv in the living room. Emma scrolled up and down the document, biting her lip.

knock knock knock

The blonde looked up quickly to see her mom standing there, dressed in a hoodie and jeans, her hair up in a bun. Emma promptly sent in the document and closed out of the submit tab. She glanced up at her mom before looking away. "Hi"

Marinette giggled, "Hi. Are you almost done? Louis said you've barely looked away from the computer all day."

Emma shrugged, "Just trying to get this all done."

Marinette nodded, stepping closer, her hands in the pockets of the hoodie. "I know, but even people that are a little behind deserve a break. Believe me, I know."

Emma smiled, "Are you behind at work again?"

Marinette sighed, sitting on the couch and putting her hands under her chin, "Only a little, but that still doesn't mean I make everyone work until their fingers fall off so I can get caught back up."

Emma laughed, "I think you just described George though."

Marinette giggled again, "You might be right about that. I get complaints from his team more than I would like to admit. The point is, if you don't get the work done on time, don't stress so much. You will get it done eventually, but you shouldn't rush it, you want to do it right."

Emma nodded, shutting the laptop. "You're right." Suddenly a thought occurred to the young girl and she looked up at her mom smiling. "You know, we still haven't played Extreme Mecha Strike II that Aunt Alya sent us for Christmas."

Marinette smirked, raising an eyebrow, "Is that a challenge I hear?"

Emma shrugged, "I don't know, old lady. It can only be a challenge if you think you have a chance of winning."

Marinette laughed, "Ohh, you're so going down."

Emma laughed too, jumping up from her seat. "I think the student surpassed the master a long time ago!" With that, Emma took off toward the living room. The rest of the night was spent playing the game. They all lost count of how many rounds they played. Louis did end up winning most of them though…

"I'm so excited to see you guys! I feel like it's been forever since I last gave you both a hug!"

Emma smiled at her dad through the phone. He was currently grading papers, his glasses sliding off his nose slightly as he glanced back up at her. "I know, we're excited too! Right, Louis?" Emma turned the camera around, so it faced her brother who had headphones in and was leaning against the wall.

"Huh?" Louis said, not glancing up.

Emma gave a huff as she reached her arm around the side of her bed, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Louis, hitting him in the chest and almost knocking his phone out of his hands.

"Hey!" Louis glared at Emma, grabbing the pillow and throwing it back before sticking his tongue out at her and looking back down at his phone. She stared at her brother a second more before shaking her head.

"Oh yea, you guys seem ecstatic." Adrien laughed.

Emma joined in laughing, "I promise, we are. It's just been a long day. Trying to get our school work done has been torture."

Adrien gave a small nod, "I definitely know that feeling. I regret giving 40 students a five-page essay to write before the end of this semester." He looked down at the papers in front of him. "I still have a little less than half to go. Remind me never to do this again." He kept looking at the papers.

Emma watched as her father worked for a moment, she knew he didn't talk much about school, most likely for the sake of herself and Louis since they never really had the chance to go to a regular school. If Emma was honest with herself, she wished he would talk about it more. She liked to imagine what it would be like to actually sit in a classroom, have a locker, school friends… She shook her head deciding to change the subject, "So did Uncle Nino and Aunt Alya like the Christmas gift I sent them?"

"You mean the American flag hat? or the 'I heart NY' t-shirt?" Adrien gave a small laugh as he circled something on the paper in front of him before turning the page.

Emma narrowed her eyes, "Those were for Uncle Nino, and you know it! He asked for them!"

Adrien smiled at his daughter, holding up his hands in defense, "Okay, sure! To be fair, Aunt Alya told me to tell you to thank you for the Ladybug Comics as well."

Emma smiled, "I'm glad she liked them, it took forever to track them down at the New York Comic Con. It's kind of hard to find anything since Ladybug's not really around anymore."

Adrien smiled sadly before shaking his head, "How's Chemistry going?"

Emma sighed noticing the sudden change, she had been hoping they wouldn't discuss this until she got back in Paris. In response, she fell back onto her bed and let out a long groan. "I don't want to talk about it."

"That bad, huh?" Adrien asked, looking back down at his papers for a second.

Emma narrowed her eyes, "I don't understand how I can be so bad at Math and Chemistry when my parents are Fashion Design and Physics majors."

Adrien laughed looking back up, "Don't worry, hun. At least you got our looks."

Emma snorted, "Oh thanks, Dad. That's so much help. Really."

"Hey, I could ask grandpa to get you into modeling if you wanted to share your Agreste looks with the world. It's selfish to keep such beauty to yourself."

She sighed dramatically, sitting up in her bed. "I mustn't really. Beauty like mine is only seen once in a lifetime. I'm like…. a unicorn. A rare, but wonderful sight." Emma flipped her hair, so it ended up in her face. Her dad glanced at her, trying not to laugh, as he gave his best look of disappointment. She blew her hair out of her mouth a few times, not moving out of her pose. A snort was heard next to her, and she glanced over to Louis who was looking at her, a confused look on his face, before rolling his eyes and going back to his phone.

"Rude." She gave a small glare, and Louis shook his head again, smirking a little before he gave out a yawn.

Adrien laughed knowing that she was referring to Louis, "But a unicorn…really? More like a beautiful little mermaid that has no control over her wonderful sun-colored locks."

Emma smiled, shaking her head. "Look, it's the pot calling the kettle black." Glancing over at the clock, it was almost midnight. "You have to start getting ready for work soon, right?"

Adrien glanced at his computer frowning, "Yeah, it's almost 6…"

Emma nodded glancing over at Louis who looked half asleep sitting against the wall on his bed, still looking at his phone, "I think I'm keeping Louis awake. I should probably head to bed."

Adrien smiled, nodding. Emma looked up at Louis, "Say goodbye to dad!"

Louis stared at his sister before taking off his headphones, looking at her questioningly. Emma shook the phone lightly, and Louis nodded in understanding.

"Good Morning Dad, Goodnight Dad. Love you." Louis sat down on Emma's bed.

"Bonne Nuit, Louis. Did you have a good day?" Adrien put down his pen, not looking away from the camera as he stretched.

Louis nodded, "Yeah, we're almost done with this semester. I just have my finals now."

"That's good, maybe you can help your sister."

The boy laughed, "Like she'd let that happen with her 'older sibling dignity' and all."

"I'm right here, you know?" Emma frowned in mock hurt.

Louis laughed, putting a hand in front of her face. "Night dad, from your favorite and only child. I really don't know who this other person is."

Their father smiled, shaking his head before replying, "Good night Louis. Sweet dreams."

The dark haired boy smiled, giving a slight wave before heading to back to his bed. Emma narrowed her eyes at her brother before smiling back at her dad, "I'll call you tomorrow night, have a good day at school dad."

Adrien smiled, "Have a good night, Emma. Love you."

"Love you too." The FaceTime call ended, and Emma sighed, setting her phone on the nightstand before getting under the covers and letting sleep take over.


	2. Chapter 2

The smell of bacon is what woke up Louis the next morning; he sat up slowly, taking a deep breath of the pleasant aroma. He looked over toward Emma's bed frowning slightly when he saw that it was empty, her bed already made. He quickly grabbed his phone off the bedside table checking the time. The dark-haired boy squinted his green eyes at the bright light as 8:40 AM flashed across the bright screen. Louis huffed before reaching for his glasses, sliding them onto his face. He wondered why Emma let him sleep in; usually, they were supposed to be up around eight on weekdays. He slowly dragged himself out of bed, fixing his t-shirt and pajama pants as he walked down the long hall heading toward the kitchen expecting to see his mom making breakfast. The boy stopped in his tracks when Emma was the one at the stove, dressed in her oversized black and pink cat sweater, the one dad had gotten her a couple birthday's ago, and her hair in a big bun on top of her head.

"You're cooking?" Louis asked as he stepped further into the kitchen.

Emma jumped slightly before looking over her shoulder. The sound of the bacon sizzling as Louis walked over to his sister, his arms folded over his chest. "Good morning and yes I am. Well... trying to. Mom had an emergency at the office, something about thousands of skirts had been cut wrong. Blah blah blah."

Louis whistled, "That stinks. I bet someone's getting fired."

Emma shrugged, "Mistakes happen."

Louis scooted around Emma and looked at the pan of bacon, "You might want to check those."

Emma looked over quickly, eyes going wide, and quickly grabbed the fork, picking the pieces of bacon off the pan, putting them onto a nearby plate. "I don't know what you're talking about; I like them crispy."

Louis raised an eyebrow, slowly picking up one of the pieces carefully, "Yeah, crispy. Not burnt."

Emma narrowed her eyes, grabbing the piece of bacon, "Oh shut up.." She quickly stuck it in her mouth, letting out a small scream when the grease burned her.

Louis laughed, "Serves you right."

Emma glared at her little brother, "Don't."

Louis stopped, "What?"

Emma grabbed another piece of uncooked bacon from the package throwing it onto the pan, "That was too close to a pun, don't be Dad. We deal with that enough in Paris."

Louis smirked, "Oh, come on, Emma; you're bacon my heart."

Emma bit her lip, flipping the piece of bacon over, not looking at her brother.

Louis looked down at the bacon, "Emma, I think you did it wrong."

The older girl narrowed her eyes again at her brother, "Shut up, Louis."

"I'm just trying to baconstructive." Louis said with a sigh.

The blonde slammed down the fork on the counter, "That's it. You can make breakfast. There are eggs in the refrigerator if you want those."

Louis watched as his older sister walked into the living room. He gave a soft smile before yelling, "Oh! You must be yolking!" Only a couple seconds had passed before Louis heard a long groan echo through the apartment. He turned toward the bacon staring at it for a second as it sizzled.

"Yeah, okay… EMMA! I have no idea what I'm doing!"

Emma hummed as she cleaned the pan and dishes that she and her brother used for breakfast. She set the last plate on the drying rack and reached for a rag to dry her hands. She looked around the kitchen, a small frown appearing on her face. It just felt empty. This feeling wasn't out of the ordinary for Emma, a lot of this apartment made her feel this way. It wasn't very homey, not that she would ever tell her mom or brother that.

Emma slowly walked into the living room; there were pictures of the three of them or just pictures of Emma or Louis in different ages throughout the years. There were professional pictures of the three of them hanging in the hall right next to her mom's room. Emma stopped in front of the photos, she remembered when they went to get the pictures taken, it was maybe three years ago. Mom was very insistent about getting them done before they left. Emma frowned as she stared at the picture. They all looked pretty happy, Emma felt like there was something wrong though. Every time she saw that picture she felt that way. The blonde sighed as she continued down the hall, she couldn't remember ever seeing a single picture of her parents together. She probably saw pictures when she was younger, but since her parents split when she was five years old, it was too hard to remember. Emma thought back to a time when she was eight, she had asked to see pictures of them all together to bring to the elementary summer camp she was in over the summer…

 _"Momma?"_

 _Marinette looked up from her computer as she sat on the couch, Emma right next to her and Louis asleep on the loveseat across from them, cuddled in a blanket._

 _"Yea, bug?"_

 _Emma smiled, "Miss Claire said we should bring a family photo tomorrow to show everyone. I was wondering if you have any pictures of all of us so I can bring it tomorrow."_

 _Marinette thought for a moment before responding, "I think I might have something, let me go look sweetheart."_

 _Emma sat up, as Marinette moved the computer off her lap and headed toward her room. Emma sat patiently waiting. A couple of minutes later Marinette came back out, handing Emma a small photo before sitting back down on the couch. "Is that okay?"_

 _Emma stared at the picture questionably, "Where's daddy?"_

 _Marinette went stiff and looked down at the picture, Adrien was the one that had taken it, almost a year after Louis was born. Marinette sighed, "Well, daddy's taking the picture."_

 _Emma frowned, "Do you have one with daddy? He's part of our family too right?"_

 _Marinette bit her lip, "Emma…"_

 _The little girl looked at her mom expectantly, waiting for some reply. There was an awkward silence in the room; the only sound was Louis light snores from the love seat. Marinette looked away from the little one after a few seconds, still not responding. Emma bit her lip, nodding to herself as she came to her conclusion. "It's okay… I understand."_

 _Marinette sighed, tears forming in her eyes. "Understand what, Emma?"_

 _Emma looked back up at her mom, "Daddy is my family, not yours anymore."_

The blonde cringed at the memory, the look on her mom's face after she said that. Emma shook her head. It's not worth thinking about now. She made her way back into her room, Louis was sitting on his bed.

"Guess what I finished!"

Emma sighed, "Math?"

Louis nodded, "Just submitted my final. I got 89%."

The blonde walked over to her bed lying down, covering her face with the pillow letting out a small groan.

Louis whistled slowly, "Wow, I didn't think it was that bad."

Emma sighed moving the pillow off her face, "Not you, I'm having one of my moments again."

Louis looked up from his computer, pushing his glasses up onto his face, frowning. "Man, you've been having a lot of those lately. I mean you usually get this way before we leave dad for mom and mom for dad. Not surprising anymore."

Emma looked over at her brother glaring. "You're still not helping. I've just… I have always felt like I need closure, you know? My entire life, our entire lives, they refuse to speak about it. Aunt Alya and Uncle Nino tell us it's not 'their place' to say anything to us. What happened that made our parents hate each other so much? I mean, remember when Grandpa got sick, and mom flew to Paris?"

Louis raised an eyebrow, "You mean two years ago?"

Emma nodded, "That is the only time I can remember them being in the same room and it was only for three seconds, Louis! Three! Dad was out of there before I could even say four in my head!" Emma threw her head back against the bed, staring at the ceiling in concentration.

Louis sighed, putting his computer to the side. "You know, we could ask Grandma and Grandpa."

Emma huffed, "Louis, we tried that a long time ago."

Louis shrugged, "Yeah, a long time ago. We are older now. It wouldn't hurt to ask when we get back to Paris."

Emma bit her lip before replying, "Yeah, okay… but if they don't say anything I'm raiding Dad's closet; he has to have something in there."

Louis laughed, "What's about mom's?"

Emma shook her head, "Already checked, couldn't find anything."

Louis laughed even harder, "Are you serious, Emma? When did you have time for that?"

The blonde rolled onto her stomach looking at her brother, "Are you seriously asking that? We are like Rapunzel stuck in the tower, except there are two of us and we are in a skyscraper. I can barely remember the last time I stepped foot outside of this apartment."

Louis rolled his eyes, "Yeah, okay."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door; both kids shot up with wide eyes as their mom stuck her head in the room. "Hey, kids."

Louis responded first, "Umm.. hi." He glanced at Emma, who shot her eyes back to her mom.

"When did you get home? What happened with the skirts?" Emma asked.

Marinette looked at both kids questionably before replying, "Just a second ago, and it's all figured out. I spoke with the manufacturer, and they are going to take care of everything. You guys okay?"

Both of her kids nodded. Marinette narrowed her eyes, still doubtful, "Well, I was wondering if you guys wanted to run into the city with me to pick up some party supplies."

Emma's eyes widened, "Party supplies, why?"

"We're having the Company New Years here this year," Marinette said, with not a lot of enthusiasm.

Emma raised an eyebrow, sitting up in bed. "I thought Mya always held the New Year's parties. You know, because she has a penthouse?"

Their mom rolled her eyes, "Yes but Mya and her family all caught the flu, so I volunteered to have the party here this year."

Emma looked over at Louis, who shrugged his shoulders before staring back at her mom for a few seconds, "Oh…you're serious."

Marinette laughed, "Why wouldn't I be?"

The blonde glanced at her brother; Louis sighed replying before Emma could, "Mom, you've never had a party here and New Years is like tomorrow."

Marinette smiled, "Well I guess we can always try something new."

Emma stared at her mother's figure as she and Louis walked a little farther behind her on the streets of New York. The street was relatively busy, and there was a light snow falling. The roads were soggy and wet from all the melted snow.

Louis looked over at Emma, "You know, we should be in her line of sight. Once she sees how far back we are she's going to flip."

The blonde sighed, pulling her coat tightly around her. "Well, she hasn't noticed yet." They walked in silence for a moment more, and Emma thought over what they had talked about earlier. Okay, maybe she was obsessing over this a bit too much… but she had a good reason, right? These were her parents after all. Weren't she and Louis the most affected out of all of this? She didn't understand why they weren't allowed to know why her parents broke up. What could they possibly be hiding? "Do you ever wonder what happened, Louis?"

The boy sighed, "This again? Have you thought about anything else in the past few days?"

Emma opened her mouth to reply before closing it; she began to think. "Does homework count?"

Louis glared at her, before looking ahead again, watching his mom's big red coat. "I know we hate when Mom wears that thing, but it definitely helps us keep track of her in the crowd.'

Emma laughed in agreement. "But really, Louis. What do you think happened?"

The boy put his hood up covering part of his face, "I don't know. Maybe like most divorced parents, they just fell out of love?… It happens, Emma."

Emma huffed but didn't disagree.

"Louis! Emma!" Both kids' eyes shot up to see Marinette stopping in the crowd, signaling them to hurry up. They quickly glanced at each other before rushing to their mother. "You guys have to keep up; someone could easily grab you. Here, walk with me." With that, Marinette wrapped an arm around both children, "Isn't this nice? Wet ground, loud traffic, that classic New York smell in the air."

Louis laughed, "Yeah mom, it's great. Gotta love the smell of garbage and gasoline. Nothing better."

Marinette smirked at Louis reaching over and pulling his hood off, ruffling his hair.

"Hey!"

"Then don't be so sarcastic," Marinette replied as Louis stuck his tongue out, pulling his hood back up and sticking his arms into the large pockets.

Emma smiled at the small scene, "So how far is this party place?"

Her mom looked up to see where they were, sticking her hands into the pockets of her long red jacket. "Not far, just around the corner. Mya said it was right next to that Chinese restaurant that we went to celebrate your 10th birthday, Emma."

Emma nodded, but in the reality of things, she had no clue where that was. She barely remembered the party, a lot of mom's coworkers were there, but Emma had only one friend there, her brother. Although Emma had met other kids, she hadn't gone to a regular school since she was five and that was back in Paris. Sure, mom's coworkers had kids, but they were all either much older or much younger. Not to mention with how much both she and Louis moved around, it was hard for either of them to create real friendships or join any activities. Emma would admit that she could play the piano and violin pretty well. When she was younger, her Grandpa had paid for violin lessons for whenever she was at home with her dad. When it came to piano though, her dad was the one that taught both her and Louis everything they know.

"Here we are." Marinette's voice said, knocking Emma out of her thoughts.

The blonde looked up at the building. The shop itself was small, but it had apartment buildings above it. Emma frowned slightly, as she watched her mother and brother walk into the store before quickly following behind.

"Do you think we should do just black and gold or have more colors?" Marinette asked, holding up the two different basic sets of New Year supplies.

Emma shrugged, "Whichever you think is best. I like the black and gold better, though."

Marinette nodded, "You're right… Let's go with gold and black. How many do you think we will need?" She turned back toward Emma, before quickly looking around the aisle they were down. "Where's your brother?"

Emma sighed, "He went to look at the old Halloween costumes, or at least I think that's where he is…"

Marinette looked down at the kit in her hands before reaching forward and grabbing the second kit, "Well, can you go wrangle him up? I'm going to go find some cute glasses to match these."

Emma nodded as she began to walk off toward the back. As she got closer, she could hear laughter. The blonde turned the corner and saw Louis talking to a red-headed girl, probably around his age.

"Look at this one!" the little girl said, grabbing a creepy clown mask off the shelf and putting it up to her face.

Louis laughed holding a rubber ax, "I can't believe people wear these things!"

"Louis!"

The dark-haired boy looked up as the redhead turned around, still holding the mask in her hands.

"Yeah?" he asked, putting the ax back on the shelf.

"Come on; Mom is almost ready to go."

Louis nodded. Suddenly his eyes widened, "Oh! This is Caroline."

Caroline waved then stuffed her hands back into the pockets of her jean jacket.

Emma smiled, giving a slight wave back, "Emma. Now come on, Louis. We got to go."

Her brother shook his head, "No, not yet. Come on; you love to look at the old Halloween costumes we do it all the time when we are with Dad."

She knew this was true, it was common for them to mess around in stores with their dad, but that was back in Paris. They had learned with time that their parents behaved pretty differently, which meant they sometimes had to as well.

Emma rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but we're with Mom, and she's almost ready to go."

Caroline looked up surprised, dropping the mask in her hands slightly. "Are… are your parents divorced too?"

Both kids stopped in their tracks, looking over at the redhead. Louis replied first, "Yeah… Your parents too?"

"Yea, a few years now."

Emma looked at the young girl who stared straight ahead for a moment, an awkward silence developing between the three. Emma was the first to speak up. "I'm sorry. Are you doing okay?"

The girl shrugged not making eye contact with the older girl, before replying,"Yeah, I'm okay. My parents not so much though, they really hate each other. Almost anytime one of them comes over to pick me up or drop me off, it turns into a screaming match."

Emma's eyes widened, "Really?"

The girl nodded, "What about you?"

Emma looked at her brother, "Our parents don't ever talk to each other."

The girl looked at them questioningly, "Really? Not even when they come to drop you off?"

Emma bit her lip and looked away. Louis replied, "Our dad lives in Paris."

The girl's eyes went wide before she whistled, "Man, I get your accents now, but your parents must really hate each other. I mean to be willing to do that to you guys. They must hate each other even more than my parents do."

Emma and Louis eyes' went wide in shock before giving each other a frown.

Caroline looked up between the two before finally catching what her words implied, "Oh! I mean.. sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just… an ocean apart is pretty far. Isn't that a bit much? What happened?"

Emma shrugged crossing her arms as the discomfort of the conversation took over, "They don't talk about it…"

Caroline sighed, "Have you bothered to ask?"

Emma nodded, "Of course! We've grown up asking that question, but I learned that they don't like talking about it."

The young girl looked like she was about to reply when a woman's voice rang out from behind them.

"Caroline. Come on."

All three kids looked up to see an older woman standing there with brown, graying hair. Caroline sighed, waving to her mother before turning back to the siblings. "It was good talking to you? I hope things work out."

Emma smiled before giving a slight nod, "You too."

They stood watching the girl for a moment before Emma let out a long breath as she began walking. "Come on Louis." She took a few more steps then glanced back to see Louis hadn't moved a single step. "Louis?"

The dark-haired boy looked up, fixing his glasses. "Do you really think they hate each other?"

Emma bit her lip, "I don't know, Louis… I hope not, but what can we do if it's true? The most we can do is find out why that's step one."

Louis thought for a moment, staring at the ground before looking up at Emma, "Let's do it."

Emma raised an eyebrow before smirking, "Who's obsessed now?"

Louis rolled his eyes, "Still you, but you're right. We need to know what happened… All of this... it's affected us enough, right? So let's figure it out."

Emma smiled, wrapping her arms around her little brother. "You know what? This might be one of the few things we agree on."

Louis laughed, "Where should we start?"

Emma smiled, "Paris… We start in Paris. Let's just enjoy the New Year for now. Come on; Mom must be wondering where we


	3. Chapter 3

"Dad! Come on, let me see him!" Louis said as he held up his phone, Adrien shook his head, "You are just going to wait until you get here!"

Louis sighed as he banged his head against the bed, "It's not fair! You get a dog, but we can't see him?"

Adrien laughs, "Louis, it's not our dog, we are going to be his foster family until they can find him the right home."

The dark hair boy rolled his eyes, "Same difference! It's still a puppy!"

Emma came walking into the room, her hair in its normal ponytail, she quickly looking up from her phone, "I heard the word puppy. What about a puppy?"

Louis sighed, "Dad took in a foster dog, he figured it would be good for us at since he will be at work a lot of the time we are back."

Emma froze, phone forgotten, she tossed it onto her bed. "Are you serious?"

Louis nodded, as Emma jumped in place a couple of times. "I want to see it!"

Adrien laughed over the phone, as Louis shook his head, "Dad refused to let me see him!"

Emma jumped onto Louis bed, seeing her dad on the screen in his kitchen, "Dad, for the good of humanity and all that is right. You need to show us the puppy right now."

Adrien shook his head, "You will see him in two days."

Emma huffed, "Dad, please." Adrien shook his head, "We are only a few minutes away from the new year here. Come say hi to everyone."

Louis laughed, "Including the dog?"

Adrien chuckled, "Nope already locked him away for now. It's definitely past its bedtime."

Emma and Louis both pouted as Adrien took the phone into the living room.

"Emma and Louis are here to say hello."

The living room only had Alya and Nino, who were both sitting on the couch watching the tv.

"Hey!" Both kids said at the same time.

Alya and Nino turned toward the camera looking away from the television, giving a slight wave as Adrien passed the phone over to the two. They flipped the camera back toward them.  
"Where's Sophie and Tyson?" Louis asked as he leaned up against the wall so Emma could see as well.

Alya laughed, "Well hello to you too. Is that how you greet your favorite aunt that you haven't spoken to for almost a month?" Both kids shrugged sheepishly and apologized, Alya smiled before answering, "Sorry Lou, they aren't here. Just missed them actually, they are at their little party now. They got tired of us being boring and anti-fun adults and wanted actually to enjoy their new year."

The kids rolled their eyes as they heard their father yell, "Hey! I'm fun! They don't know what they're missing out on!"

Alya and Nino both glanced up, raising an eyebrow at Adrien before looking back into the camera.

Nino shook his head, "His students will say otherwise…"

Emma smiled giving a slight giggle, as she heard her father off camera again, "Nino, you're kids are not even a quarter of the total class opinion. So their opinion is invalid because the rest of the class thinks I'm the best."

Nino laughed, "Ah! Thank you Mr. Agreste, just what every father wants to hear; his kids are completely invalid in society."

Alya smacked Nino on the arm giving out a small laugh, then pointed over the phone probably where Adrien stood, "And you! You disrespect my children; you disrespect me."

Emma looked over at her brother, "Do you think they know we are still on the phone?"

Louis shrugged, "I'm just enjoying this…"

Emma laughed, grabbing the phone from his hands as the three continued to argue playfully.

"Excuse me, children," Emma said playfully. Alya looked down at the phone, "Adrien, I think your daughter's calling you."

Emma shook her head, "I think old age is making you all crazy, it's way past all of your bedtimes."

Adrien appeared suddenly, grabbing the phone from Alya's hands, the camera moved around a lot before a clear Adrien appeared on the screen. "Excuse me, but we are doing just fine. Thank you. Old age and all. Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Emma raised an eyebrow, "It's not even six here!"

Adrien nodded his head, "So? That seems pretty late to me."

Emma shook her head as Louis laughed, she quickly handed the phone over to her brother, "You can handle the toddler. I'm going to get some food… Bye Dad, Happy New Year. Bye, Aunt Alya and Uncle Nino!"

She heard her father laugh, as she moved off of the bed.

"Bye Emma!" she heard all three of them yell, she smiled as she started toward the door.

Louis watched his sister leave the room before looking back down to Adrien, "Can I see the dog now?"

Marinette began humming as she put she carefully drew a line of eyeliner along the top of her eye, she drew the line out looking over at her other eye attempting to match it. Marinette smiled as she looked at her reflection as she finished before looking down at her phone.

8:37

People would start arriving pretty soon, Marinette went to pick up her mascara when she heard a small knock on her door.

"Mom?" The dark haired woman looked up, her perfectly curled hair bouncing slightly at the sudden movement. Marinette smiled as she saw Emma standing in the doorway in a gold sequence dress that out around her knees, her hair curled hanging over one shoulder.

"Don't you look beautiful. What's up?" Emma smiled, "Thanks, I have wanted to wear it for a while now, Grandpa got it for me in July. I like your dress too."

Marinette smiled looking down at the dress she was wearing it was a simple black dress with small crystals lining the top. Marinette looked back up, "Thanks Bug, so what do you need?"

"At since the dress is entirely gold, I was just wondering…. do you have any jewelry that would match?"

Marinette smiles, setting her eyeliner down as she walked over to her jewelry box and started looking through it. Emma walked over silently, standing as her mother picks different pieces up and holds them up to the dress.

"I can't believe that you guys leave in tomorrow, it's crazy how fast went by, huh?"

Emma nods, "Yea, I can't believe it's already New Years again. It feels like just yesterday that Louis and I were waiting for the fireworks on the balcony and Dad started throwing those firecrackers at us." Emma laughed slightly, as the memory came back. She got so mad at her dad, that was until she found the bag of them the next morning and got her payback.

Marinette laughed slightly, shaking her head, before sighing. "I think the only thing I have that will match, would be my pearls. She held up the necklace for Emma to see; the blonde stared at them for a moment before reaching out to grab them. "I think they're perfect, can you help me put them on?"

Marinette smiled, taking the pearls back, "Of course."

Emma turned around, pulling her hair farther to the side, "So do you have a New Years resolution, Mom?"

Marinette raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly. "My New Years Resolution? Hmm… Maybe that you get your Chemistry done in Paris before you end up back here in April."

Emma frowned, "Hey! I'll get it done… and Math." Marinette rolls her eyes, "I'm really going to miss you guys, though. It's going to be so quiet again without you both here."

Emma smiles, "It's not that loud with us here either."

Marinette laughs, "You know what I mean."

Emma nods, reaching around and pulling her mom into a hug. "I'm going to miss you too."

Marinette smiles wrapping her arms around her daughter, pulling her in closer.

"Well let's go see if your brother figured out how to tie that tie of his."

Emma laughs, "Doubt it, last time he tried we had to cut off because we couldn't get it to undo."

"Come on Louis! You just have to get the candy into the bucket!" One of the older kids shouted Louis stuck his tongue out in concentration, as he tilted the phone to the side as a couple of kids watch over his shoulder.

Emma watched her brother as she leaned against the wall outside of the kitchen, she felt a pat on her shoulder and turned around to see a girl with black hair tied into a bun and a dark green dress.

"Hey." the girl said, as she took her place next to Emma leaning against the wall, can of Coke in her hand.

"Hey, Claire…"

Claire was one of Emma's few friends in New York, well kind of friends; they didn't hang out much other than parties like this. Claire was eighteen, which put a pretty large age gap between the two.

"You seem super out of it, you okay?"

Emma sighed, watching her brother as Louis showed his score to the older teen next to him, smiling as he passed the phone over to the next kid to play.

Emma opened her mouth to reply, but after a second she closed it and shrugged.

Claire laughed, "No, you were about to say something. Come on, what's on going on?"

Emma glanced at the girl before crossing her arms.

"I just have a lot on my mind… but it's a new year so new me, right?"

Claire raised an eyebrow, "I don't think it works like that."

The blonde shrugged, not saying another word as she continued to stare straight ahead.

"So you excited to be heading back to Paris?"

Emma nodded, "Yea, no different than a few months ago, though. You know, always moving."

Claire nodded sadly, "Hey. I saw your mom made some of her world famous eclairs, do you want to help me snack on a few?"

Emma smirked, "You mean I would have to share?"

Claire laughed as both of them started walking toward the kitchen.

Emma bites into the eclair. She had grown up with these, and Emma probably had a sweet tooth as big as her mother's. Emma went to take another bite when she looked up and saw her mom talking to a man.

Emma's eyes narrowed, normally this wouldn't be out of the ordinary, but this man was Hugh. Also known as the narcissistic, button up wearing jerk that likes to hit on her mom. He has been around for the last year now; he had stopped by in April when she and Louis were in New York. He wanted to take their mom out, and both Emma and Louis had not liked him since. No, it wasn't because he took their mom out, it because he brought gifts for the both of them. A Barbie doll and a hot wheel car, neither of the toys were even in the box, and the Barbie was missing a shoe and a clump of hair out of the back of her head.

Emma took another bite of the eclair, her eyes not leaving the two as they spoke.

Who even gets a Barbie for a fourteen-year-old? Her mom said it was a kind gesture, and Emma wouldn't argue that it was sweet that he thought of them. It was just obvious that he was only here for one thing.

Emma looks over to Claire. "I'll be back… I have to check on something."

Claire nods, taking another bite of the dessert, turning to her cellphone.

Emma strolls slowly toward the two close enough so she could hear their conversation.

"You know you really should think about joining onto that line with me, Marinette. This could be big for us, the company, your family."

Emma's eyes widen, a new clothing line?

"You know I can't do that Hugh. I have the kids to think about, and I already don't see them half the year…" Marinette answers, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't get why you don't fight for full custody; your ex is what… a school teacher? You could probably win the rights easily."

Marinette stays silent, as Mr. Button Up continues. "Plus if you join the line that could mean we have a chance to get to know each other better."

Emma pretends to gag as she waits for her mom's answer, hoping it would be a punch to the face. Emma is surprised when her mom blushes and shakes her head. Emma narrows her eyes, glaring daggers at Hugh as the man casually wraps his arm lightly around Marinette's waist, as her mom's eyes widen.

"You know I can't remember the last time I had a new year's kiss, but you never know this could be the lucky night." Emma clenches her first having heard enough, turns away stomping away from her mom. She grabs Louis by the collar pulling him off the couch, "What?"

"Come on; we need to talk."

Marinette bites her lip as she removes the man's arm from around her. "Yea, you might want to talk to Ann I heard her say the exact same thing earlier. Excuse me."  
Marinette sighed as she walked away, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Marinette walked toward her bedroom, needing a break from all of it. The woman stopped when she heard muffled voices through the door, oh there better not be… Marinette stopped when she recognized the voices of her kids.

"I'm telling you, Louis! He had his hands all over her!"

Marinette leaned against the door.

"And mom didn't do anything, and that guy started talking about mom taking full custody!" Marinette cringed, looking away from the door. How did she not noticed Emma standing nearby when she was speaking to Hugh?

Although, if Marinette was honest with herself... She almost did, she almost fought for full custody. She didn't think she would get it, but after… everything. She wanted to try, but she couldn't.

"Do you think mom would do that?" Marinette heard Louis ask softly.

No….

She heard Emma sigh. "Lou, I don't know… I mean with how much they hate each other I wouldn't be surprised. I just think she would have done it earlier."

Marinette cringed again she leaned her head against the door, a single tear running down her face.

"We better get back out there… Mom's going to be wondering where we are."

Marinette looked up wide eyed, as she turned back around and quickly walked back into the living room wiping the few tears from her face. A few seconds later, she saw both kids come out looking around the room, make eye contact with her, smile then continue into the kitchen.

Marinette felt someone tap her shoulder; she gave one last glance to the kids before turning around.

Marinette nodded and greeted the person, starting a conversation, but all her head was telling was how much she had to fix this, but she didn't know how.

Emma stares out the window; you could see some of the events that were going on down below. You could barely see the stage where they were all performing. Emma looked up at the big countdown clock, only thirty minutes left.

Emma turned around to Louis had fallen asleep on the couch, she giggles slightly grabbing the blanket off the couch and sliding it over her brother. She smiled at one of the guests as they nodded at her, she quickly walked away back into the kitchen.

Emma saw her mom standing there, pouring a few glasses of champagne. Emma turns around quickly about to walk out of the kitchen.

"Emma."

The blonde stopped at the sound of her name; she doesn't glance over her shoulder. She doesn't move from her current spot.

"Emma. Are you okay?"

Emma shrugs still not turning around, Marinette sighs taking a step closer to the girl.

No one was in the kitchen with them, Emma turns around slowly.

"Yea, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

Marinette looked at the girl sadly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You just seem distant anymore. You would tell me if something was bothering you, right?"

Emma looked away, shrugging her shoulder again. A few seconds of silence had passed between the two before Emma spoke up.

"I… I saw you talking to Hugh."

Marinette nodded, "I know… I went to my bedroom after I spoke to him…and I heard the conversation you had with your brother."

Emma looks up in surprise, eye wide open. "Oh… how much?"

Marinette sighed, "About how you think I would take away custody from your father."

Emma looks away, her arms folding over her chest.

Marinette continues. "How could you think so low of me?" Marinette grabs on the counter nearby, squeezing the edge of the table as tears start to whelp up in her eyes. She put a gentle hand on Emma's shoulder as she takes a breath before she continues. "Yes, your father and I don't get along. Yes, we don't speak, but I would never do that to him…Both you guys are some of the only family he has left."

Emma looked away.

"But what about grandpa? They seem to be fine."

Marinette sighed, "It's complicated, Emma. Maybe a little too complicated for you."

Emma shakes her head, "I'm fifteen, none of this is difficult for me anymore Mom."

Marinette bit her lip looking away, leaning against the counter, unsure of how to explain this to her daughter. She could tell her the truth, that both her parents were superheroes back in the good old days and that Gabriel Agreste was the evil Hawkmoth. After Adrien had found out, he stopped talking to him for years until Emma was born that is.

Marinette shook her head again, "I'm sorry, Emma…"

Emma stayed silent, clenching her fists on her lap before letting out a deep breath.

"It's fine, but I'm going to stay in my room for the rest of the night… if that's okay."

Marinette didn't answer as Emma walked away with her head down.

The blonde was lying on her bed for a bit, unsure what to do. She didn't feel like being in the same room as her mom right now.

Emma begins to hear people count down outside and in the living room.

50…. 49…..

Emma sighs as she rolls onto her back, closing her eyes as she continues to listen to the thousands of people outside her window.

47…. 46….

Marinette glances around the room realizing that her daughter was still nowhere to be seen. She sighed as she grabbed her champagne glass off the counter before walking into the living room, Louis was still passed out on the couch, his glasses slightly crooked an arm behind his head.

She smiled at her son, wondering how both of them had grown up so fast, especially Emma. She knew these question would rise someday, but she didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Emma, she did. There were just certain subjects that she wasn't sure Emma was ready here, like that she spent most of her youth running around in a red and black polka-dot suit fighting evil butterflies.

"You ready for the New Year, Mari?"

29… 28…

Marinette eyes widen at the nickname, turning around to see on of her co-workers sling an arm around her.

Marinette smiles sadly, "As ready as I'll ever be."

If Marinette had a new years resolution, it was to make this right with her kids…

No matter what.

20…19…. 18

Emma let out a deep breath as she slowly stood up, smoothing out her dress before grabbing her comforter off the bed and throwing it over herself.

15… 14…

She slowly made her way over to the window on the far side of the room, taking in the sight of New York.

Thousands and thousand of people were on the street below her; she smiled as turned her head, from her window you could barely see the countdown clock. It was still there, though, glowing and shining against the window.

She smiles as the small fireworks started going off. The clock was ticking loudly with each number.

10… 9… 8

She and Louis were going to do this. Both of their parents were keeping secrets from them, and they were going to find out why.

3….

The blonde leans against the glass as she continues to hear hundreds of thousands of voices countdown.

2….

Emma smiled as she watched the ball drop and the fireworks start to go off as thousands of people screamed.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Emma nodded her head wrapping her comforter tightly around herself, "Happy New Year…." she whispers to no one, giving another smile as she headed back over to her bed.

 **Ahhh….. so many new characters including a puppy! Yay! The kids are heading to Paris next chapter! Super excited because secrets will start coming out and there are a bunch of surprises ahead! The cover is still in the works almost done, though, once I complete it. I will post a link to it in the comment of one of the future chapters!**

 **Thanks for reading and remember to review! :)**

 **~Haley**


	4. Chapter 4

Emma's eye shot open as a loud bang went off outside her window. She didn't pick her head up off the pillow though because, well, this was a regular occurrence in New York City. She hated the fact that it still wakes her up in the morning, but with today being the first day of the New Year, Emma didn't expect it to quiet down for at least a couple more days.

The blonde let out a groan as she rolled over to the side, her eyes still adjusting to the light streaming in. Across the room, her brother was still asleep. He was definitely a heavy sleeper, and unlike Emma, he never had to take anything to fall asleep on cars or planes.

Emma sat up, stretching her arms and started to reach for her phone when she heard her mother's muffled voice coming from the hall. Emma was still upset with her mom, but felt her stomach rumble, begging for breakfast. She really didn't want to see her mom at the moment, but there was no way to avoid her unless she wanted to try climbing down the fire escape. Emma laughed to herself at the thought.

Her mother's voice grew louder again as though she were on the phone. Emma glanced over at the clock, it was too early for her mom to be talking to anybody at the office. The blonde slid out of bed and made her way over to the bedroom door, carefully opening it so she wouldn't make a sound making her to the kitchen, tiptoeing down the hall and trying to be as silent as she could.

She stole a glance around the corner to see her mom on the phone, leaning against the counter. Emma turned back and pressed herself against the wall, focusing on her mother's voice as it echoed through the small kitchen. Her mom was speaking French so she must be talking to someone in Paris. Emma focused on her mother's words.

"I don't know what to do, Chloe…"

There was a long pause.

"Well no… but…"

Another long pause.

"It's doesn't matter, Chloe. I heard what she said, you and I both know the truth, but she can't know…"

Her mother went silent once more.

"You know why… what would I do tell her the truth and her think badly of all of us?"

Emma narrowed her eyes, not understanding a word of the conversation. Why was she talking to Aunt Chloe? Sure, she knew they were best friends, but she had never heard her mom have such a serious conversation with her.

"They leave for Paris tonight…"

Emma's eyes widened as she realized they were talking about her. Well, her and Louis, but it was probably about the argument they had yesterday. Emma remained still as she listened to her mom pacing the floor in her heels, "No, he better not speak a word and if he doesn't you can tell him that I will come to Paris personally to hang him by his tail if he does."

Emma frowned, wondering who Marinette could be talking about. Who in the world would have a tail that her mom would need to worry about?

"I need to go, Chloe. Just keep low, okay? I don't need them finding out. Emma and Louis are not ready to hear all of that yet…"

Emma waited a moment as her mom hung up the phone, letting out a sigh. She thought for a moment before she entered the kitchen. Her mother was leaning against the counter, resting her head in one hand, her phone still in the other.

"Who was that?" Emma inquired.

Marinette looked up in surprise, "Aunt Chloe… She was saying how excited she was to see you guys. She just got back from Italy."

Emma nodded and chose to go to the fridge, instead of answering her mother.

"So, are you all packed?" Marinette asked as she set down the phone on the counter. The girl looked over her shoulder from the fridge, "Yeah." She pulled out a container of strawberries and milk, going to the cabinet for cereal.

"Well… that's good." Marinette said quietly.

There was a pause between the two. Marinette picked up her coffee mug, raising it to her mouth to take a sip as Emma went to grab two bowls from one of the other cabinets. Silence filled the room as Emma began to pour the cereal into each one. Marinette sighed, narrowing her eyes at the young girl and lowering her coffee mug.

"Your last morning here and you're going to have an attitude with me?"

Emma looked over at her mom before she started to pour the milk, "Attitude? It's just early, Mom. Yes, I'm packed. Louis is too if you wanted to know."

Her mom sighed as she set her mug down on the counter, "Emma, I know yesterday was… difficult…"

"It wouldn't be difficult if you would just tell me the truth." Emma glanced up at her mother for a moment, wondering if that gave away that she heard the conversation with Aunt Chloe.

Marinette looked up at her daughter with a stern look, "Emma I told you, we are not talking about this."

Emma stared at her mother for a few moments before shrugging, "Fine."

She went back to pouring the milk into the bowls of cereal. Marinette watched as her daughter finished, taking both bowls with her as she walked out of the kitchen. Marinette sighed, lowering her head and staring into her cup of coffee. That wasn't how she wanted that to go. She grabbed the cup of coffee off the counter, leaning back and holding the cup to her lips, taking another small sip.

What could she do? She couldn't tell Emma the truth about anything at this point. At least not without talking to…. Marinette cringed, deciding not to think about it. But how much longer could this all be kept a secret? As she stepped into the living room, she could hear the traffic from the city below, the apartment silent otherwise. She watched as Emma closed the bedroom door without even glancing back.

Emma closed the door behind her with her foot, she could still feel her mother's gaze on her as she did. She looked over at Louis who was looking on his phone while in bed.

"Mom was talking to Aunt Chloe this morning…."

Louis looked up, not surprised, "So? She talks to Aunt Chloe all the time."

Emma sighed, "Yea, but it was different this time. They were talking about the fight I had with mom yesterday."

Louis took the bowl of cereal from Emma, as he sat up and crossed his legs on the bed. Emma moved back to her bed, sitting down on it before taking a bite of her cereal.

"What were they saying?" Louis asked, before putting a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

The girl shrugged, "Something about not wanting to tell us any anything. Mom said something about someone with a tail though."

Louis paused just as he was about to take another bite, "A tail?"

Emma nodded, "Yeah, she threatened someone with a tail. I don't really know…"

Her brother thought for a moment, "So like a cat?"

The blonde stopped, looking up at her brother, "Yeah, or a dog. I don't know Louis, she said she if he said anything she would come and hang him by his tail."

He thought for a moment before taking another bite of his cereal. Emma watched him for a moment, "You're thinking of something... What do you think she is talking about?"

Louis shrugged, "There's only one person that has a tail that mom would have to go back to Paris to find."

Emma thought for a moment before her eyes went wide, "You don't think?"

Louis looked up with a smirk on his face, "Chat Noir?" He looked back down at his cereal for a moment before making eye contact with Emma once again. "Think about it. It's the only thing that makes sense."

Sure it made sense at first, but that would mean that her mom had known Chat Noir personally, which didn't make sense at all. Why would her mom know him? But then again... From her mom's conversation… Emma shook her head, staring down at her bowl of cereal. They did not need to be jumping to conclusions right now.

Marinette was sitting on the couch, laptop in front of her, typing up an email about an order that is supposed to go out at the beginning of next week when she heard footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Emma walking into the kitchen. Marinette stopped typing for a moment to listen to the sink turn on for a few moments before it turned off and she heard footsteps coming back toward her.

Emma slowly approached her mom, waiting for Marinette to look up. Marinette typed a few more words, answering her email before looking up at her daughter. Emma opened her mouth to speak before closing it, rethinking her words. Marinette smiled as she waited for her daughter to talk.

After a moment Emma sighed, "I'm sorry. I was out of line this morning.. and last night…" She looked down at her hands and interlocked her fingers, raising her shoulder awkwardly thinking of the words to continue. "I just… I feel like there is so much I don't know? You had this whole life before Louis, and I were even born, and I just don't know any of it. I know I never bothered to ask, but I just feel like you are keeping so much from us."

Marinette smiled, "Well, you know I can't tell you everything, Emma."

Emma raised her hands using quotations, "I know… It's complicated."

Marinette shook her head, laughing slightly. "I won't tell you anything if you keep mocking me."

Emma bit her lip to stop herself from smiling, "Can I possibly just ask questions and you tell me if you can answer them?"

Her mom thought about it for a moment before nodding, "Sure." She closed her laptop deciding the email could wait until a little bit later, setting it aside and pulling her legs up on the couch, before resting her arm on top of the sofa. Emma sat down as well, looking somewhat awkward and stiff.

Marinette giggled, "So what do you want to know?"

Emma thought for a moment before looking to her mom, "How did you meet Aunt Alya?"

Marinette bit her lip at the mention her old friend, but she forced a smiled. "We were in collège, maybe about Troisième or ninth grade. Alya was new to the school, and Chloe was bullying me-"

Emma leaned forward, "Wait… Aunt Chloe? As in the one you were just talking too? As in mom of Annalise? Owner of all of the Bourgeois Hotels in Europe? The one that got me that adorable pair of heels last year?"

Marinette smiled, giving a small laugh, "Yes, that Chloe. Now let me finish before you interrupt again." She leaned back into the couch, looking away for a moment as she sorted through her thoughts. "Anyway, Chloe was bullying me about where I was sitting on the first day of class, in her opinion I had taken her seat, even though I had been sitting there for most of collège. Chloe continued to try to get me to move, and Alya came up and…. well basically started to tell Chloe off."

Emma giggled, "I can see Aunt Alya doing that."

"What about Aunt Alya?" Both Marinette and Emma turn around to see Louis come into the room still in his pajamas.

Emma smiled, "Mom was telling me that Aunt Alya told Aunt Chloe off in school for bullying Mom."

Louis eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Aunt Chloe was your bully?"

Marinette shrugged, "For most of collège, but once we got into lycèe things changed."

Emma looked over at her mom questionably, "What changed?"

Marinette shrugged again, "Chloe had a change of heart, we all became pretty good friends."

Emma nodded, accepting the answer. Louis came over to the two and sat down on the plush carpet in front of them, leaning back on his hands. "I can't imagine Aunt Chloe being a bully. She is intimidating, sure, but mean? Not so much."

Emma looked over at Louis, "But remember that one time Annalise spilled her cream soda all over her mom's dress at that dinner party?"

Louis' eyes went wide, "Oh.. yeah, nevermind. Aunt Chloe can get pretty mean."

Their mom giggled, "You don't know the half of it."

Both Louis and Emma looked at their mom, and she grinned back. "So how about one more question, then we call it quits."

Emma and Louis both narrowed their eyes but Emma was the first to speak, "But that's only two questions!"

"Better than none, right?"

Emma opened her mouth to reply, before huffing and crossing her arms. "Fine. Louis, you can ask the question if you want."

Louis smiled excitedly, "Umm… You were in Paris when both Ladybug and Chat Noir were around, right mom?"

Emma looked over at Louis in surprise. Marinette only nodded, glancing over to the side looking outside the window.

Emma looked over at her mom before asking, "Did you know either of them?" She could tell this was a hard topic for her mom to talk about, but she couldn't figure out why.

Marinette thought for a moment before replying, "Yes, I was saved by them a couple of times when I was about your age."

Louis asked another question, "Did she ever tell Paris why she left."

Marinette shifted awkwardly on the couch before taking a deep breath. She looked back to both of her kids, expecting an answer. She smiled slightly before shrugging her shoulders. "No… she didn't, but you both have officially gone over your question limit."

Louis groaned, "Unfair."

There was a pause before Louis spoke up again. "I wonder where she is now…"

Marinette simply looked away.

Emma looked down at her brother thinking for a moment before answering, "Probably having a normal life, maybe married with kids or something."

Louis nodded, "But isn't she like five thousand years old?"

She looked over at her brother, "You're never too old to start a family!"

He quirked an eyebrow, "Okay forty years old I understand, but I feel like five thousand is kind of pushing it."

Marinette looked back over at her children, giving a smile before rolling her eyes. She continued to watch them sadly as they argued back and forth. She would tell them everything someday, but for now, she just wanted to enjoy her last day with these crazy kids of hers.

A couple of hours later, Marinette came back into the living room having finished her emails and phone calls for the day. "So what do you guys want to do for your last day?" She asked as she leaned against the wall, looking at her children.

Emma looked up from her phone. Louis was the first to speak up, looking away from the television. "I could go for one last New York hot dog."

Marinette laughed, "Well get dressed and grab your coats. Let's go see if Mark is around the block today."

Louis jumped up off the couch, "Sweet!"

When they made their way out of the apartment, Emma wrapped her arms tightly around herself as the cold breeze hit her face. Lucky for them, it turned out Mark was in his usual spot and once he spotted the trio coming around the corner a smile appeared on his face.

"Marinette! How lovely to see you!"

Emma smiled at the interaction. Mark was a good man, a little loud but very nice. He was almost in his sixties, but you could tell he still loved his job.

"The usual, Emma?" He asked, and Emma nodded.

After the hot dogs were handed out and paid for, Mark looked toward the family once more. "So when do you head back?" he asked Emma and Louis.

Louis spoke up, "Tonight actually."

Mark look surprised, "So soon? It's still only New Years Day."

Marinette shrugged, "It was the only time that worked with my schedule. I leave in a couple days to go to Los Angeles for two weeks."

Emma and Louis looked at each other, mentally confirming that the other didn't know. They looked up at their mom in shock. This was definitely something that neither of them knew about.

Mark didn't seem to notice, "Oh… well, that is too bad! When will you all be back?"

Emma was the one to respond this time, "Probably not until the end of April." Mark nodded, although you could tell he was a little sad. Emma didn't know if it was because they were leaving or because of how much they moved back and forth. Maybe both…

"Well, I hope you have a safe trip back, and I hope that you both will stop by to see me on your first day back in the city."

Emma and Louis grinned and nodded as Emma replied, "Of course, Mark! I can only survive so long without your delicious hot dogs!"

Soon they were saying their goodbyes and starting to walk once more. They spent the rest of the day taking a walk around Central Park and finding their way to the shopping areas. However, once the time was nearing four, Marinette knew it was time to head back since her children's flight was at nine. They ended up having to take a cab home because of how far away they had walked from the apartment.

"Are you sure you have everything?" Marinette asked as she put on her big red coat once again, turning around as Emma and Louis pulled their luggage bags behind them. Emma nodded, letting out a sigh, as she pulled her two silver luggage bags next to the door and reached to grab her coat.

Louis struggled to get his big black bag over to the door with one hand, his roll bag in the other side. "Why do I always…bring so much…. stuff…"

Emma laughed as she watched her younger brother struggle, "I told you. I don't know why you brought so many coats. One would have been fine."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "I like variety."

Emma raised an eyebrow back as she fixed her backpack over her shoulders, "Then don't complain about your bag."

Marinette looked up from her phone and sighs, "Are you guys going to bicker all the way to Paris?"

Emma shrugged her shoulders glancing over at her brother before looking back up, "Probably."

Marinette shook her head before looking down at her watch, "Alright it's almost five o'clock, let's get you guys to the airport."

Louis sighed, dropping his arms slightly before stretching his arms and bending down to pick up his bag up again, "Let's hurry, my arms are going to be numb by the time I get downstairs."

Emma giggled as she rolled her bags behind her, their mom holding the door open.

"It's not funny!" Louis shouted going out the door and almost falling over as he turned.

Marinette rolled her eyes before closing the door behind them and locking it.

They took a cab to the airport and Marinette helped them get everything inside. After they checked in and dropped off all of the luggage, it was time for the thing Emma and Louis hated the most… having to say goodbye.

Marinette walked them up to security, "So you threw away your water right, Emma?"

She nodded, "I have a couple of snacks, my sleeping medicine, and cash to buy new stuff on the other side before we get on the plane."

Marinette smiled, "Okay and your gate this time is…"

"B3," Louis said.

Their mom smiled, "Okay, okay. I know you guys have done this a million times."

Emma smiled as she went to give her mom a hug, "Love you, mom. We will call you as soon as we get back to Paris."

Marinette nodded as she hugged her daughter tight, "I know. I love you, Emma."

Emma let go, wiping a tear away as her brother gave their mom a hug as well.

"Love you, Louis."

"Love you too, Mom, but I have to ask.. can I please buy the wifi this time?"

Marinette sighed as tears started to well up in her eyes. "Sure, but only on one device, okay?"

Louis nodded, giving his mom another hug before he turned back to Emma. They both waved goodbye as they made their way to security, each holding their French Passports. After they made it through security and purchased their snacks for the flight, they got dinner from a little sandwich place inside the airport. Soon enough it was time for them to start boarding. Once they were situated on the plane, Emma looked over at Louis to see he had already put his headphones in and had closed his eyes. Emma rolled her eyes, he could literally fall asleep anywhere. Her eyes widened when she realized she had forgotten to text her dad this whole time. She quickly took out her phone and sent him a quick text.

 **On the plane now! See you soon. Love you!**

She sighed, setting her phone on top of her leg as she watched the rest of the passengers walk by as they boarded as well. A few minutes passed before she felt her phone vibrate. She looked at the screen to see a reply from her father.

Great! Now go bug the pilot to see if he will fly the plane faster. Love you too.

Emma smiled at the reply as the plane started to back out and head toward the runway. She absentmindedly looked out the window, thinking back over the last couple days. She knew her parents were keeping things from her, but she was going to find out what it was. All of the clues had to be in Paris

She sighed, setting her phone on top of her leg as she watched as the rest of the passengers walked by as they boarded as well.

A few minutes passed before she felt her phone vibrate, she looked at the screen to see a reply from her father.

 **Great! Now go bug the pilot to see if he will fly the plane faster. Love you too.**

Emma smiled at the reply just as the phone started to back out and head towards the runway. She sat watching out the window thinking back over the last couple days.

She knew her parents were keeping things from her, but she was going to find out what it was. All of the clues just had to be in Paris.

* * *

 **Hi guys! I'm so so sorry how long it has taken me to update. Between school, traveling and other things I have been swamped. I have wanted to upload this chapter for a while now, but I know a lot of things needed fixing and I haven't had the heart to try to fix any of it as of late. One of my friends that was helping me with this story passed away in back in March, and it has been tough for me to pick up this story since. I really want to continue, but there were some things that I want to change if you noticed an update came out for the other chapters because I'm reworking the story. I will hopefully try to update every Tuesday, but it may be every other Tuesday once school started again.**

 **Also big thanks to my best friend Emily for helping me with this story and being a very fast editor for me! Love ya! 3**

 **Thanks for being so, patient guys! I hope to start parts of this story into comic form as I go, so I will also keep you updated on when those are finished!**

 **~Haley**


	5. Chapter 5

During their time on the plane, Emma and Louis made a plan of how they were going to figure all of this out.

Emma stared at the paper in front of her, "So who should we ask versus not ask?" She looked over at her little brother was also staring at the paper.

"Well definitely big no to Dad. We already know that he won't say anything." Louis said as Emma nodded writing Dad and putting a giant X next to it.

"Okay… Aunt Alya and Uncle Nino?"

Louis thought for a moment before answering, "Yea, we have before, but it wouldn't hurt to ask again…"

Emma nodded writing both of the names, not putting anything next to them.

"Grandma and Grandpa?"

Louis sighed, "I guess… I mean they haven't to tell us anything before I don't know why they would now."

The blonde thought for a moment, she knew that they have gone down this road with their grandparents before.. and they were very serious about not saying anything without their mom's permission. If nothing else, they would have to be subtle about their questions…

"We have to try…" Emma said, writing down Grandma and Grandpa on the paper.

"Aunt Chloe?" Louis asked. Emma nodded immediately writing down her name.

Their Aunt Chloe was pretty well known between the two of them for accidentally slipping information, although they were rarely ever alone together, either Adrien or Marinette being around with them.

"Grandfather?" Louis asked, glancing down at the list.

Emma gave a small laugh, "Louis, I'm afraid to ask that man if I can use the restroom when we visit. I'm not asking him about this."

Louis stared at her for a moment and for a second she thought he was going to make fun of her when he just let out a sigh falling back in his seat.

"Yea… He's terrifying."

Emma let out a giggle, surprised they actually agreed on something.

Louis continued on, "He does give us cool presents though…"

Emma shook her head, not agreeing or disagreeing with her brother, but…. She totally agreed with him.

A couple hours into the flight they spent talking about what they or didn't know. They knew their parents didn't like to talk to each other and that everyone refused to mention it for some reason.

They also knew that Chat Noir was possibly tied into this all somehow.

Louis let out a sudden gasp, "What if mom and Chat Noir were together?"

Emma looked over at her brother confused, "But when?" Louis ignored Emma's comment. "What if one of us is like a secret love child between them and Dad found out, so they got divorced."

Emma blinked a few times, "I know… we are really high up, so I'm just going to assume that the lack of oxygen getting to your head right now."

Her brother looked at her with a pout before replying, "It would make sense why no one wants to talk about it."

She rolled her eyes at her brother's response, "Yea, but Dad still talks to us, I don't think that's a common occurrence if the kid isn't actually yours."

Louis sat up in his seat ready to give a response when he started to think it over, "Darn…." He deflated back into his seat as the subject was dropped.

Emma thought for a moment, it was ridiculous to think that Chat Noir of all people could be their father, but it made Emma think back to her fight with her mom. She didn't know if she should bring it up with her dad... Emma knew that if she didn't, it would bother her the whole time. She just didn't know how... Sure, she had fights with her mom before, but this was different... She just had to find the right moment to tell him about it.

Emma decided now wasn't the time to be thinking of that, and after a while, they decided to put on a movie, Emma let out a yawn looking over at her brother who had fallen asleep a little while ago. She stretched as best as she could in her seat, looking to the right outside her window which was completely dark, she eyes slowly drifted closed as sleep overtook her.

 _"Daddy I don't want too!"_

 _Her father let out a laugh, "You have to learn to do it by yourself at some point, Emma!"_

 _The little girl let out a huff as she sat on her bike, both legs securely on each side._

 _"I can't stay straight. I wobble." The little five-year-old girl said, moving the bike handlebars to emphasize her point._

 _Adrien gave a crooked smile, bending down to the girl's height, putting his hands over hers on the bike handles._

 _"You have to look where you're going, Em. Don't look down. Keep your eyes on me, okay?" Adrien gave her hands a small squeeze before he was back up to his normal height, as he slowly started to back away from her._

 _Emma stared down at the bike handles in concentration, before looking up determined. She slowly started to lift each leg, but couldn't get them to stay without almost falling over._

 _Tears started to well up in her eyes, as she looked back up at her dad._

 _"Do you need a head start, Bug?" The little girl turned around quickly to see her mom, her little brother attached in a baby carrier on the front of her chest._

 _The little girl gave a small smile and a nod, as her mom looked back up at her dad with a small smile._

 _"Hold on…"_

 _Her mother reached down with one hand, supporting Louis with the other as she slowly started to help Emma find her balance on her bike._

 _She looked up ecstatic as she held the balance, glancing back to see her mom had let go, she looked toward her dad, who had a massive smile on his face._

 _"You're doing it, Emma!"_

 _"Emma…._ Emma…."

The girl stirred in her seat, her eyes adjusting to the light. She looked over to see her brother who looked as tired as she did.

"We are about to land, I figured I would wake you so you could get your stuff together."

Emma nodded as her brother's words, as she reached to start putting her things back in her bag.

She thought about her dream, well not indeed an illusion. It felt more like a memory. The blonde shook her head.

Louis looked over at her strange, "Are you okay?" Emma nodded, "Yea, just tired." Louis chuckled, "Yea, but we get to see the foster dog today! I was trying not to think about it, but now that we are here… I really can't help it."

Emma gave a smile, as she tried to focus her thoughts. There was a lot they had to worry about now that they were back in Paris. They had to remember what they came back for…

"Do you see him?" Emma asks, looking through the crowds of people as they walked past security. Louis shook his head, as they continued to step forward, Emma fixed her backpack straps as she continued to look around step forward. The airport was very loud, from the intercom speaking in French to the hundreds of people around them some speaking different languages.

Emma bit her lip, glancing down at her phone, still no messages.

Emma opened her phone getting ready to call her dad when Louis gasped.

"Found him!" Emma didn't have time to look away from her phone before Louis took off.

Emma's eyes widened, "Louis! Wait!"

The boy didn't listen as he continued to run forward, Emma lost sight of him in the see of people.

She sighed, before chasing after him. She slowly pushed her way past people as she held onto her backpack straps tight.

"Excuse me!"

Emma looks around for her brother wondering where he ran off to when she spots apart his bright red hoodie. The blonde smiles, as she squeezes around a woman, apologizing once more before taking off running.

As Emma gets closer, she can see Louis start to run up to a tall blonde man, with black glasses hanging off his nose, dressed in a button-down little green shirt and dark jeans. Louis runs up and tackles Adrien in a hug, Emma laughs as she jogs up to them.

"Hey, Lou!" Adrien pulls his son into a tight hug, before letting go slightly reaching up and ruffling his hair.

Louis reaches up batting his dad's hands away, "Dad!"

Adrien laughs, as he reaches for Emma, the girl smiles going forward into her father's reach giving him a big hug. After a few moments, they both pull away. Adrien smiles, "Look at you both! Did you guys grow taller while you were away?"

Louis shrugged, giving a big smile, "Maybe you just got shorter." Adrien reaches over ruffling his son's hair again. "Oh, yea that's definitely it." Louis narrowed his eyes, a smile still on his face as he reaches up to fix his hair.

Adrien looks over to Emma, "How was the flight?" He reaches down to grab Louis' backpack that he had dropped on the floor, throwing it over his shoulder.

Emma shrugs fixing her own backpack, "Long, like normal. I only slept for maybe five hours of it."

"Jetlag is going to get you. What about you Louis?" Adrien replied, shaking his head as they started to make their way through the airport, kids on either side of him.

Emma laughs, as Louis shot her a glare. "I slept most of the time."

Emma looks up at her father, "Most as in almost the whole time. He was awake for maybe only a couple hours after take off." Adrien gives a small smile, "Well at since it is the weekend, we might be able to slip a few cat naps in here and there until you two get used to the time change."

Emma nodded, not saying a word, but Louis had a small skip in his step as they all started to walk to the baggage claim.

"Okay I know you don't want us to ask about it, but… what the dog's name? Does it even have one?"

Adrien sighed, "I was counting the minutes it would take for you to bring up the dog." He glances down at his phone, "You didn't even make it three, Lou."

The dark haired boy shrugged, "Patience is not a virtue. Come on does it have a name?"

Adrien chuckled, "No, he does not. He was really new to the shelter, so he has just been 'The dog' for the last couple days. Uncle Nino and Co. have been complaining, but, the shelter said we could name him."

Emma smiled widely, "Really?"

Adrien looked over at her before nodding, "It just can't be weird… or abnormal."

Adrien shot Louis a playful glare. Louis put his hands up, "What? Okay, so I named that goldfish, Fishsticks. I thought it was pretty clever." Emma began looking for her flight number on the board, her blue eyes scanning it carefully before one caught her eye.

"We're going to be on number four." Adrien nodded, as he looked around at the numbers.

"Come on, guys. This way." Adrien began to walk again as Emma and Louis caught up.

There was a moment of silence between the three before Louis looked over at his dad, "I was wondering something."

Adrien looked down at his son, questionable. Louis continued on, "So you know how you've been working at that new school? Would it be okay if we checked it out with you one day?"

Adrien didn't answer for a minute thinking, before he sighed, "I don't know, Lou. I might be able to have you guys tag along with me one morning, then go across the street to your grandparents' house, but other than that the school is closed on weekends. I don't know if they would be okay with you guys hanging around during school hours."

Emma frowned, as Adrien began talking again. "I'll see what I can do though, maybe you both can shadow me for a day or something. We'll see."

They came to a stop in front of their baggage claim, standing awkwardly between a couple other people, waiting for it to start.

Emma stayed silent as she listened to her dad and Louis talk as they grabbed their luggage, and made their way to Adrien's car, only answering questions that were directed towards her.

"Home, Sweet, Home." Louis said, taking a step into the house.

"Don't you mean, La douceur du foyer?" Louis frowned, "The same thing."

Emma laughed setting the apartment keys on the counter, "Yea okay."

Adrien came in next carrying Louis bag on his shoulder, "Merde Louis, what do you even have in here?"

Louis looked over at his dad, "My things."

Their father rolled his eyes, "Wow. Really? It feels like you brought all of New York back with you."

Louis rolled his eyes, "So… Where did you hide it?" Adrien looked up at his son confused, "Oh the dog!" Adrien let out a laugh before he continued.

"I didn't want to leave him alone while I was out and about today so I took him to Aunt Alya's and Uncle Nino's."

Louis let out a sigh, before looking over at Emma. "I think this could be considered a form of torture." Emma giggled, "Only to you, Louis." Her brother gave an exaggerated gasp. "You are supposed to be on my side, you want to see the puppy just as much as I do!"

"Well, we could all go take a walk and pick him up if you guys are that eager to meet him," Adrien said, crossing his arms.

Louis gave Adrien a huge grin, "Yes! Can we go right now?" He asked as he started to bounce back on his heels excitedly.

Adrien smiled, before pointing down to the bag, "Yes, but first you need to get this bag upstairs."

The boy instantly stopped his bouncing, his face dropping as he stared at the bag for a moment before letting a loud groan.

Soon they were on their way to Lahiffe Residence, after Louis' intense battle with his bag, Emma ended up having to help him carry to get it upstairs. The condo wasn't too far from their dad's own apartment maybe only a few blocks over, but still in a cute little neighborhood.

"What about Olivier?"

Emma shook her head, "What if you go to the park and call him and some little kid looks at you thinking you are saying his name."

Louis sighed, "This is hard."

"How about you guys decide once you actually see the dog?" Adrien suggested as he walked on the outside of the kids, both of his hands in the jacket of his pockets. Louis shrugged, "We need options though, plus there is no such thing about thinking too far ahead."

Adrien smiled, shaking his head, "You'd be surprised."

As they made their way up the steps of the condo, they were met with a loud bark just on the other side.

Emma and Louis gave each other a look of excitement as Adrien reached out to provide the door with a tentative knock.

After a moment the door opened, and their Uncle Nino was standing on the other side, wiping his hands with a towel.

"Hey, guys!" Emma gave a smile about to reply when Louis let a loud gasp.

"He's so cute!" The rest of the group watch as Louis quickly bent down to the puppy as the dog immediately jumped into his arms.

Louis let out a laugh as he fell back slightly, the brown and white puppy immediately going for his face.

Adrien let out a laugh, as he picked up the puppy off his son.

Louis looked up sad, but stood up and started petting the dog that was in his father's arms.

"What type of dog is he?"

Nino was the one to reply, "French Spaniel. Right?" He asked, glancing up at Adrien.

The blond nodded, "Yea. Only about nine weeks old, too." They started to walk inside the house when Nino suddenly grabbed both Louis and Emma by the shoulder.

"I haven't seen either of you for three months, and this is how you greet me?" Both kids let out a laugh, before Louis replied, "We just saw you on FaceTime a couple days ago, Uncle Nino!"

The older man pretended to look offended, "This is no way to greet your favorite uncle!"

Emma crossed her arms, "Well given you are our only uncle…"

Nino reached forward pulling both kids into a hug from behind, "Just give me a hug, you lunatics."

Emma and Louis both let out a giggle, as they turned around and gave Nino a proper hug.

"Nino! You can't hog both of them!" A familiar voice said all three turned around to see Alya standing there with her hands on her hips, a small smirk on her face.

"Nope. Sorry, they are mine for today." Nino said, turning with both kids still in his arms. Emma and Louis laughed as they struggle to get out of Nino's grip, Emma finally sprang making a run for Alya.

Nino let out a loud sigh behind her, "I've been betrayed!"

Emma ran straight into Alya's arms, giving her a big hug before looking up at her.

"Hi."

Alya gave a loving smile, reaching up to brush Emma's bangs out of her eyes.

"Really? Only a hi?"

Emma stuck her tongue out, before letting go of her Aunt Alya. Louis bent down to pick up the puppy, who had finally calmed down enough to feel comfortable being held.

"Where's Tyson and Sophie?"

"Upstairs. You can go surprise them if you want too." Alya said, as she gave the two a knowing smile.

Emma and Louis made their way upstairs as they heard the twins arguing. Louis still holding the puppy in his arms.

"Tyson! Please, Uncle Adrien will kill me if I don't have this done by Monday."

As they turned the corner, they saw Sophie attempting to reach a paper that Tyson was holding over his own head.

Emma realized just how much both of them had grown in the past couple of months. Tyson was definitely much taller than Sophie knows, both of them still had glasses upon their faces.

"Soph. I told you. If you don't learn to do the work on your own, you will be coming to me for the rest of our lives."

Sophie gave out a huff, "Well I'm probably going to be doing that anyway, so gimme!"

Emma and Louis let out a laugh causing the twins to look over there way.

"Em! Lou!" They shouted at the same time, Emma smiled knowing this was a regular occurrence between the two.

She reached out to catch Sophie into a hug as they girl came toward her.

If Emma had a close friend she would give that role to Sophie, but they still didn't talk much once Emma went to New York. They felt more like cousins having grown up attached to the hip being born only a few months apart.

Emma let go of Sophie finally getting a good look at the girl.

"You cut your hair!" The blonde explained, very surprised knowing that her hair was Sophie's prize possession. The last time Emma had seen the girl her hair was almost past her waist, now it was a pixie cut.

Emma thought it looked great on her, but she never thought this was something that Sophie would ever do.

Sophie smiled, her brown eyes sparkling as the conversation changed, "Yea! I just got it cut a couple weeks ago, I figured it would be a good change for the new year!"

Emma nodded, looking over to Louis who was talking to Tyson.

"I told her that if she is having trouble, she just has to ask your dad, but she's too embarrassed," Tyson said, reaching over petting the puppy in Louis' arms before he crossed his arms looking over at his sister. Sophie huffed, "I'm not embarrassed, it's just weird, he's over for dinner all of the time, it would be a weird topic to bring up sitting around a table." The girl crossed her arms, looking back over at her brother. "Besides I don't see you running to Miss. Agee just because you are having trouble in writing."

Tyson rolled his eyes but didn't reply.

Louis decided t change the subject, "So what's dad like as a teacher?"

Tyson and Sophie looked at each other, "He's cool. He does cool group activities and stuff. It was weird seeing him in class at first, but it's better now." Tyson said Sophie, smiled.

"Plus like all of the girls have a crush on him." Emma's eyes widened in surprise, "Really?"

Sophie nodded giving a small giggle, "Well yea, probably our entire class minus like Annalise and me."

Emma nodded, Annalise was Chloe's daughter. They would hang out a lot especially when they were younger, but they have definitely grown apart over the years.

"Kids! Time to eat!" Alya's voice shouted, echoing throughout the house.

The kids looked at each other quickly before they started to step out of the room.

Dinner was mostly silent, except for the basic questions like how was New York and talking about school.

"When do you guys have to start up school again?" Alya asked as she cut her chicken into smaller pieces.

Emma was the first to reply, "Actually we don't have to start working on it for another couple weeks. Once we actually finish a couple of smaller classes we started taking over break."

Alya nodded, "That's pretty cool. You probably already know that Ty and Soph start back on Monday."

Both kids nodded, "Yea, Dad told us."

Adrien looked up with a smile before he felt his phone ring, he looked down in surprise, drawing both Emma and Louis's attention.

He gave a sigh looking up at Alya and Nino, "You guys are still free tomorrow right?"

Both looked over surprised before giving a nod, "Yea… What's going on?"

Adrien looked from the two other adults to the kids before looking back at Alya and Nino.

"You did want to go see that one _movie_ still, right?"

Aya and Nino gave each other a look, to Emma it almost looked as though they were having a secret conversation, but she guessed they were because they both looked over at Adrien before nodding. Plus, Emma didn't really like the way her dad emphasized the word 'movie', it made her think that really not what they were doing.

"Yea, if that's okay with the kids?"

Sophie and Tyson both nodded, not really paying attention as they continued to dig at their food. "Yea that's fine."

Emma felt as though something was missing from the conversation though, she looked back at her dad as he called at her.

"Are you guys okay with that?" He asked.

Emma paused, as Louis gave a nod, after a moment before replying with a simple, "Yea."

After dinner, Emma made her way to the balcony. She loved being around other people, especially those that she basically considered family. Emma was happy to be here, but it was weird coming back to things different. Sure, she used to it, but she was afraid of how big the changes could start to get.

Would she be here for Ty and Soph's graduation? Would she even have actual commencement? What about college? How could she decide between staying in Paris or going to a college close to her mom? But what about her dad?

Emma shook her head, pushing the thoughts out of her head as she leaned against the balcony of the apartment that overlooked Paris, the Eiffel Tower gleaming not too far in the distance, the sun just finished setting not twenty minutes ago.

"Hey.." Emma turned slightly to see her dad. She gave him a small smile as he continued, "Mind if I join you?" The young blonde shrugged with a small nod, as she moved over slightly inviting her father to the railing.

There was a moment of silence between them as they looked over the city, only the sounds of cars and a few people laughing below to fill the empty space.

Adrien sighed, "I'm sure you're pretty tired. Jet-lag hitting you yet?"

Emma looked over at her dad, "it's getting there. I've been trying not to think about it." He laughed before silence settled between them again, Emma wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure what to talk about. She was lucky when her dad filled that space for her.

"You know, I'm not sure it's the jet lag… but you seem off. Is everything okay?"

Emma bit her lip, she knew what she wanted to bring up, but she didn't want to bring it up. Definitely not on her first day back, although if she knew her dad, Emma knew that he didn't like to let things sit.

"Things were weird on New Years… It's not a big deal. I'll get over it…" Emma said, hoping that will draw his attention away from the topic.

Adrien gave a nod, "Louis said your mom had a New Years Party… Was it because of that?"

Emma shrugged, making a face, but not looking up at her dad, "Kind of? It's was fine, it was fun… I just…" She tried to pace herself, taking a deep breath, the blonde stopped her words.

She felt a hand lay on her shoulder, Emma finally looked up to see her dad looking at her very concerned.

"Hey… you know you can tell me anything, right? If something bothering you, I want to know. You don't have to tell me right now, but I can tell something happened." Adrien said tears welled up in Emma's eyes.

"Mom and I had a fight…" Emma said finally, a tear streaking down her face. Adrien gave a frown before he pulled his daughter into a hug. Emma clutched onto the front of his shirt, before continuing.

"We solved it. Kind of? I guess. She said something at the party, or I guess someone said something to her, but she didn't… and I…" Emma rambled before stopping.

Adrien gave her moment to compose herself as she took another deep breath, she paused for a moment looking over her father's shoulder at the tower once more, before she looked back at her father, who was still looking at her in concern.

"You know I love you? Right, Dad?" Emma said, reaching up to wipe a stray tear from her eye.

Adrien gave a smile as he pulled his daughter close again, "Of course, Em. I would never doubt it. Just know that I love you about a billion times more."

Emma gave a deep sigh, burying in her face into her father's shoulder for a moment before looking up at the Eiffel Tower.

New York sure did have a good view, but this skyline always felt more at home.

 **Hi guys! Sorry for the slightly late update! It was my sister's birthday so I wasn't around a computer all day! I'm going back and updating the other couple chapters for grammar errors and just other small errors. You might see those every now and then if I change anything significant I will let you all know, but for now, it's just grammar. I'm excited that the kids are finally back in Paris, A LOT of adventures await them, and I can't wait to share them with all of you! I'm slowly going to be introducing some new characters in the next couple chapters, along with some old ones. If you guys have any questions about the story, please don't be afraid to ask, I want to make sure I explain things within the story universe that might be confusing to you or that you feel I should touch upon more! I hope you guys have been enjoying reading this story as much as I do writing it! Thank you for all of the beautiful comments, it definitely makes my day to open my email and see feedback from you all!**

 **Until next week!**

 **~Haley**


	6. Chapter 6

"Here let's look at the questions again…"

Emma looked up at her dad, "It's hopeless… I'll never pass Chemistry." Adrien gave a laugh, leaning back in the seat away from the computer.

"It just takes practice. Here…" He said, reaching over and grabbing a blank piece of paper.

"The equilibrium constant is describing the ratio of the product.." Emma watches as her father writes a formula down on the paper before he continues to explain, "and the reactant concentrations at equilibrium, but that really only concerning partial pressures."

Emma watched in confusion, she had heard these words in the video she had to wait, but none of it really added up in her head. She understood chemistry, like the basics… the periodic table was okay and the elements she knew, but now it was turning into gibberish.

She watched as her father continued to try to explain it, and Emma decided she should probably try to focus on learning what it meant to calculate the equilibrium using the Kc… or was it the Kp? Emma bit her lip, trying to think before giving a sigh causing her father to stop mid-sentence looking up at her.

"I'm confusing you, aren't I?" He asked, raising an eyebrow behind his glasses. Emma shook her head, "I'm confusing myself… I feel like it should make sense, but it's all still nonsense to me." Adrien nodded his head, "It can be weird, especially at since you haven't been in an actual lab for it…"

Emma nodded, that was part of an online school, she has been learning chemistry, but nothing that actually involves gloves or goggles. She was thankful at first, but now she sees why it's so important.

"Why don't we take a break, Em," Adrien said as he stood up, stretching back. Emma gave a nod, as she did the same making her way over to the living room.

Her dad's apartment was a lot homier than her mom's. There was a lot of pictures hanging up mostly of Emma and Louis when they were younger, but a lot of Ayla, Nino, Tyson, and Sophie as well. No pictures of her mom, but Emma was used to it. They had to exist somewhere though, right?

Louis came into the room, holding the little puppy in his arms, "Okay. So I think a name has been decided on."

Both Adrien and Emma looked up the boy as he entered the room more, the little puppy wiggling in his arms.

"What are you thinking?" Emma asked.

"Milou!" Louis explained, holding up the puppy slightly.

Emma turned her head slightly, "Does that just mean Snowy?"

Louis nodded, "But it is a good name! It fits don't you think?"

She looked into the puppy's big brown eyes, as his tail wagged below him. Emma gave nod before smiling. "Yea I guess it does." She looked back at her dad, "What do you think?"

Adrien gave a smile before crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. "It's up to you guys. I do like it though."

"Yes!" Louis explained, giving a small spin with the dog in his arms. "Hi, Milou!" He continued pulling the dog closer into a hug as Milou licked his face. Emma gave a small laugh, walking forward and giving the puppy a rub on the head.

Adrien smiled at the scene, "I'll call the shelter later, so they can update his file." Both kids gave a nod as they sat in front of the television, Louis reaching over to turn it on.

The first thing to pop up was the news, a woman speaking at the station…

"We are still receiving updates of the battle occurring in the Bourse District. So far all we know is both Rena Rouge and Carapace have arrived on the scene."

Louis was the first to speak up, "Do you think akumas are back?" Emma's eyes widened at the thought. There haven't been akuma attacks since before she was born. She looked over at her father who was staring intensely at the screen before replying.

"No… Hawkmoth is gone. This is something else." Emma watched her dad for a bit longer before he looked over and made eye contact. The younger blonde looked away quickly.

Adrien continued, "Don't worry though. I'm sure Rena and Carapace can handle it, maybe some of the heroes will start to show up as well."

Emma looked back toward the television as it showed bits and pieces of the battle as Rena Rouge and Carapace continued to fight a black moving blur that was causing havoc amongst the streets.

Their dad spoke up again, "I'm going to go take a shower, do you guys want to go to lunch after?"

Emma and Louis looked over before giving a nod, "Yea sure. We will go and start getting ready too."

Adrien smiled before turning around to head back to his room, as soon as he closed the door a small black blur shot toward him.

"Having the kids here is making it really hard for me to get my camembert, Adrien." The blond shook his head, "Plagg, I know for a fact that you have plenty of camembert in here."

The kwami made a face, "But if I eat all of it, what will I do?" Adrien raised an eyebrow at Plagg, "You will survive, but we need to hurry. I feel this has something to do with what Master Fu was warning all of us about. Plagg! Claws Out!"

After Adrien had transformed, he carefully snuck his way out of the apartment and started to make his way to where the fight was. He hoped it wasn't too late, given what Master Fu had said, he knew that whatever was coming wasn't good. He just wished they could figure out what it was.

"Chat!" He heard from behind him, he turned around to see Queen Bee making her way toward him.

"Hey! I thought you weren't supposed to be back in town until early tomorrow." He said as they continued to fling themselves across buildings.

"Well at since someone starts school tomorrow. I figured we should get back into town so she could prepare." Adrien nodded, truthfully he forgot that the second quarter started up so soon.

"So what do you think it could be?" Queen Bee asked, knocking Chat out of his thoughts.

"None of us know… While you were gone, we had a meeting with Master Fu. He said that something is coming…"

They could hear sirens as they approached the battle, the heroes landed on a slanted roof, Chat turned around just as they heard a loud crash followed by something green flying right by them. His eye followed the moving object as it landed to see Carapace's shield accompanied by the man sticking his head up from behind it.

"Carapace!" Chat shouted as he and Queen Bee made their way over the other hero. The turtle hero looked up relieved, "Good to see you guys!"

Chat landed next to Carapace, helping him up. "I really don't know what is going on here, Rena and I can't even touch it. It's way too fast." Carapace said, hooking his shield onto his back.

Queen Bee looked over to Chat, "We might as well check it out, right?" He looked over at her before nodding and looking back toward the turtle hero. "Is Rena still following it?" Carapace nodded, "Yea, they were heading toward the shopping district before I got hit." They started to make their way across the buildings again as Queen Bee spoke up to Chat.

"You said Master Fu thinks something is coming? What do you think he means by that?" Chat thought for a moment, before replying, "I think he means something worse than Hawkmoth…"

"Do you think we will be able to do this alone?" Queen Bee asks Chat knowing precisely what she is referring too. He knows the answer already before it was easy because they could, but with whatever this was he wasn't so sure.

He looked up at her just as they landed on the next roof, "I don't think we have a choice." Chat watched as she went to reply, but stopped herself short. Her eyes cast down in defeat already knowing the truth.

"Guys!" The trio heard behind them, they turned to see Rena land directly in front of them. "Come on! It's heading toward the shops. There are way too many people down there!" The four heroes took off, Chat saw the shadow twisting and weaving above the shops close to the roof.

"I'm going after it! Queenie, Rena! You guys try to get the area cleared." He shouted as he took off faster, releasing his baton from its belt. He jumped toward the shadow, raising his baton above his head swinging down to hit it.

As if in slow motion, Chat watched as the shadow turned around, showing red eyes that conveyed no emotion. Suddenly, it moved right toward Chat, the hero's eyes widened in surprise as the creature went straight through him disappearing into thin air.

Chat tumbled to the ground, rolling across the street below. He laid there for a moment as Carapace quickly landed next to him.

"You okay, dude?" The turtle hero asked, reaching out a hand to help Chat up. He gave a nod, taking the hand, "Yea… I'm good."

Queen Bee and Rena landed next to them, "Do you have any idea what that was?" Rena asked, taking a step closer to Carapace who laid a hand on her shoulder.

Chat shook his head, "I don't know… It was alive? It looked at me." The rest of the heroes were silent as they processed this information. The blond looked around at the crowd that started to gather and the damages that the shadow had created. There had been damages throughout the years, but nothing this extensive. Chat looked over to the rest of the team giving a nod to jump onto the nearby roof. After they landed, Chat spoke up, "We need to meet with Master Fu. This is going to get worse, we need to find out exactly how much he knows. I have to get back, Emma and Louis think I'm taking a shower."

Carapace gave a laugh, "I feel like that is your only excuse."

Chat rolled his eyes, as he extended his baton. "It's the model in me."

Carapace, Rena Rouge, and Queen Bee all watched as Chat made his way across the roofs back to his apartment.

Queen Bee looked back down at the damage below, "Sure could use a 'Miraculous Ladybug' right about now."

Rena nodded with a frown, "Come on… Let's go see what we can help with." The other two nodded as they jumped back on off the roof to help deal with the damages.

"Chat Noir and Queen Bee did arrive on the scene. Unfortunately, it looks as though whatever was causing the havoc among the city has escaped from our heroes' grasp."

Emma looked over at her brother, "What do you think it is?" Over the years, Carapace, Queen Bee, Rena Rouge, and Chat Noir have been keeping the city safe. From what Emma could tell most of the time the heroes had been out was either for patrol or small matters like robberies, especially ever since Ladybug disappeared.

Louis looked over toward the hallway before glancing back at his sister, "Why does dad take such long showers? I want to know what his water bill looks like." Emma shrugged, glancing away from the television to Louis.

"I don't know… I don't want to think about it." Louis opened his mouth to reply, but closed it a moment later, leaning back into the seat in defeat.

"Good point."

Emma looked back toward the television to see it change to Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and Carapace staying to help with injuries and clean up in the shopping district. Emma remembers when she was little and Ladybug was able to clean up everything in seconds because of her magic. She can imagine just how much the heroes are probably missing that right now.

"Where Chat Noir?" Louis asked Emma, didn't reply as she looked over the scene to see that the cat hero was in fact not there to help with clean up. Where could he have gone?

"Are you guys ready?" They heard behind them, both kids turned to see their dad walking in, hair still damp, but he was completely changed into a different outfit.

Louis gave a huff, "Finally! I think that is the longest shower yet, but yea I'm good to go." Emma looked up at her dad, "Yea. I'm good, we should probably stay away from the shopping district though. It's still a mess after the whole battle."

Adrien gave a nod, "I'll go get Milou's leash. I can go you guys how to walk him." Louis gave a giant smile as he jumped to go grab his shoes.

"Alright so you want to keep both hands on the leash, and you want to wrap it around your hand like this," Adrien said as he showed the kids. Louis was paying close attention, as Milou was straining the leash in his puppy vest, trying to get his owners to walk.

"You want to hold the other end in your hand and keep him close to you. If you let him too far ahead, you won't have control, okay?" Louis nodded as his father's words, "Can I try?"

Adrien looked skeptical for a moment, "Here. Let me walk him for a couple blocks, you watched, and I'll let you walk him the rest of the way to the cafe, okay?"

Louis pouted for a moment before nodding his head, knowing that he wouldn't be able to change his father's mind.

"Alright."

Emma smiled, as she trailed a little bit behind them, watching at Louis continued to ask their father questions.

"I read that you should keep him on the inside of the sidewalk, so he doesn't have a chance of running in the middle of the road," Louis said, watching as Milou padded across the smooth concrete occasionally sniffing as he explores.

Adrien gave a small nod, "Yea, actually I use to do that with you guys too when you were little."

Emma looked up questionable, "You use to keep on the inside of the sidewalk?" Her father nodded, reaching one of his hands up still holding the leash to push up his glasses.

"Yea, just to keep you safe. I didn't need you guys running out into the middle of the road when you were little."

Emma nodded, "I never noticed." Adrien laughed, "I didn't expect you too." He looked around at where they were, before continuing, "Alright. Louis you can walk Milou from here."

Louis made a sound of excitement as he held out his hands to his father, awaiting the leash of the puppy. The younger blond smiled as her brother carefully wrapped the leash around his hand, holding it tightly as they continued their walk.

Pretty soon they arrived at the cafe, luckily for Emma because Louis didn't stop talking the rest of the walk.

"We should definitely take him on walks everyday…" Louis continued, Adrien nodded at Louis' words. "if you think you have the time, go for it it will be good for Milou to learn out to walk early on anyway." Adrien said as they approached the doors of the cafe.

"Dad look," Emma said as she noticed a sign on the outside.

NO DOGS ALLOWED. The sign read Adrien sighed. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." He looked around for a moment, "Emma, you haven't had a chance with the dog, why don't you wait outside and Louis and I will go order."

Emma gave a nod, deciding that was probably the most logical thing to do. She carefully took the leash from Louis grabbing hold of it the same way and told her dad her order before they made their way inside.

She looked down at the dog, who was observing her as if he was waiting for a command.

"Come on… Let's go sit down until they're done." Emma said as she went to take a seat at one of the outdoor tables. She looked around at the Parisian atmosphere, it felt similar yet very different to New York. There was still the hustle and bustle of people moving around, but it felt a lot more relaxed.

Emma felt her pocket buzz, and she reached to grab her phone, letting go slightly of the leash. Before she knew it, the leash was pulled from her crib entirely. Her eyes widened in shock as the puppy took off down the street.

"Milou!" Emma shouted as she jumped up out of the chair chasing after the puppy. He rounded the corner at the bottom of the street, obviously much faster than her. Her dad would kill her if she lost this dog, she didn't even want to think about what Louis would do. She shook her head, as she rounded the same corner and tripped right over someone.

Emma screamed as she tumbled into the person, falling not so gracefully right onto the ground.

"Are you alright?" Someone asked Emma took a deep breath as she began to open her eyes as the person continued to speak.

"I'm so sorry. There was this dog… but I didn't realize I was standing right in the middle of the walkway."

The blonde quickly sat up, to see a young boy, probably not much older than herself, sitting there holding the leash of Milou.

Emma sighed in relief at the sight of the dog, before looking up at the boy once more. He wasn't bad looking, Emma thought, trying to stop a blush from appearing on her cheeks. He had dark brown eyes that matched his hair, and skin that was a few shades darker than her own.

Emma realized she hadn't responded to the boy, she spoke up quickly. "Oh no! It's okay. I was actually chasing him." Emma pointed to the dog.

The boy's eyes widened, "Oh! Is he yours?" Emma nodded, as the boy started to stand up, he reached out and offered Emma a hand.

"I'm Quinten." He said Emma gave a small smile reaching out and taking his hand as he helped to pull her up.

"Emma."

Quinten looked down at the dog, "So what's your name?" The puppy looked up at Quinten, his small tail wagging in excitement at the attention. Emma giggled, "That's Milou."

Quinten glanced at her for a moment before bending back down to the puppy reaching out a hand for him to sniff, "it's nice to officially meet you, Milou." The puppy smelled his hand for second before giving a small yip and nuzzling the boy's hand. Quinten reached up to give Milou a scratch on the head. He glanced back up at Emma, who was watching the pair with a smile. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but this was definitely one of the cutest things she had ever seen.

Suddenly, Quinten was back up on feet, now that they were standing right next to each other Emma realized that the boy was at least a full head taller than her.

"I believe this belongs to you." He said, handing over the leash. Emma smiled, taking it from the boy, a small spark igniting as their hands touched. Emma looked up at Quinten again, as he stared right back at her for a moment.

Emma looked away, still trying to keep that blush from creeping up onto her cheeks, but she knew she was probably failing.

"I should go…" The blonde said as she started to step away from the boy, Quinten gave a nod. "It was nice meeting you. Maybe I'll see you again?"

Emma paused at the words, "Maybe…" she replied, but didn't look back at the boy as she rounded the corner again.

 _What just happened?_

Emma started to walk back up to the cafe, a firm grip on the leash this time to see her dad and brother standing outside looking around confused before they saw her.

Her dad was the first one to speak up, "We didn't know where you went! Everything okay?"

The blonde smiled cautiously, "Yea! He.. was _uh_... just getting restless so I decided to just take him on a walk down the street and back up."

Emma didn't like to lie, but she didn't even want to think about how they would have reacted if she had lost the dog.

Adrien gave a nod, as they all took a seat, and Emma began to munch on her small sandwich.

"-And the puppy is absolutely adorable. He's probably only a few weeks old, but from what Louis found online he's going to get pretty big." Emma said as she spoke to her mom on the phone.

"That's great, Bug! So are you guys settling back in, okay?" Marinette said on the other side of the phone, Emma was laying in her bed, staring up at the sealing at the glow in the dark stars that laid above her. She and Louis had put those up about there years ago and hadn't regretted it since.

"Yea, we got to eat dinner with Aunt Alya and Uncle Nino the first day back. The time difference hasn't been too bad, we've only had a take a couple naps."

Marinette have a hum of approval on the other side of the phone before she spoke, "So how are they doing?"

Emma sat up, crossing her legs on her bed before she replied, "They're good. School starts tomorrow, so Tyson and Sophie were struggling to get their winter break homework done."

Marinette laughed, "So that makes all four of you?" Emma sighed, "I don't even want to think about chemistry right now." Her mom gave another chuckle, "You have to get it done, Em. You don't want it getting pushed into the new semester. The girl gave a pout knowing that her mom couldn't see it.

"I know. Oh! There was something else I wanted to talk to you about- I ran into this-" but Emma was cut short by her mother's words.

"I'm so sorry, Bug, but work is calling. I have to pick this up. Can I talk to you later though? You can tell me your story than right?" The blonde didn't speak for a moment, disappointed at her mom's words.

"Oh.. um.. Yea! That's okay. I'll talk to you about it later." Marinette sighed in relief, "Okay! Love you! Talk to you soon." With that Marinette hung up the phone, Emma sat there for a moment before leaning back into her bed. She used to it, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt whenever their mom put work first.

Emma sighed before reaching for her pillow, she may have developed a crush on someone after only speaking a few sentences to each other and she just really wished she could have someone to talk her out of this craziness.

 **Hi guys! Thank you for all of your support for my story! My sister says thank you for all of the birthday wishes! Someone asked me if it was going to be angst or happy ending story, I can honestly say both? I have a lot more story to tell, and I think parts of it will make you want to throw your phone or computer against a wall because writing it out sure makes me want to sometimes! I think the story I want to tell is full of emotion, but I wanted to keep to the Miraculous storyline. Sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it too, or you think you are making the right choice and come to find out you didn't. Everyone in the story has made choices that have affected those around them, and I'm excited to show you guys how much that changed not only relationships but conflicts in the story as well.**

 **I am working on 2 other stories I shall post including a HUGE list of one-shots about the entire Agreste Family so I will be posting the beginning of that soon as well! Some will be within the CHC universe. The other story I can't mention just yet!**

 **I will see you all next Thursday!**


	7. Chapter 7

"I can't believe how early you have to get up," Emma said, sitting at the table eating a croissant lazily as her father rushed around the kitchen as he made a cup of coffee.

Adrien stopped his motion of reaching for the cabinet to look back at his daughter, raising an eyebrow, "It's only a half hour early than the other school I taught at." He turned back toward the cabinet reaching in to grab his to-go mug.

Emma stretched her arms back, barely paying attention to her father's movement. She knew his basic routine, but this was a new school. Not only that it's the school that both of her parents went to, and as far as she knows where they met. She knew her parents have known each other since they were fourteen and that they got together around sixteen, but everything in between is a blank. Emma mentally hit herself over the head remembering the conversation she was having with her dad, she couldn't believe school could start so early.

"Yea, but a half hour in the morning is at least a two-hour difference when it comes to being able to sleep in."

Adrien gave out a chuckle, "What are you doing up anyway?"

The young blonde shrugged, Emma didn't really know how to respond. If she was honest, she was hoping her mom was going to call her back last night, but at since that didn't happen. Emma stayed up most of the night overthinking her conversation with her mom, plus trying to make a plan of how she and Louis are going to find all of the stuff she knew her dad didn't want her to find.

Honestly, though she did miss her dad, he was more comfortable to talk to sometimes and she really just enjoyed his presence.

"You were loud, and it sounded like you were talking to someone this morning. You need to learn to be quieter." Emma said, leaning forward on the counter with a small smirk.

Okay, sure, she wasn't really sleeping, but she definitely knew that her Dad was talking to someone pretty early this morning.

She watched as her dad paused for a second as he went to place the mug down under the coffee maker.

"Sorry… I was… on a call. I'll try to keep it down next time." Adrien replied, looking at Emma out of the corner of his eye was a sorry glance as he placed the mug down, going into his usual routine of making the coffee.

Emma took another bite off the croissant, content with her father's reply, as she listened to the coffee maker start, she swallowed before starting up a conversation with her dad.

"Are you going to talk to the school about Louis and me visiting?"

Adrien turned around to look at her before leaning against the counter crossing his arms. His glasses were slightly sliding down off his face, as he gave a sigh reaching up a hand to push back the black frames.

"We'll see. Like I said, they should be okay with it, but the principal now is much different from the principal from when I went to school there."

Emma watched as her father paused for a moment as if he was thinking, sometimes she wished she could jump into his head to know exact memories that come across his mind.

She wondered if any of them were about her mom.

"Dad?" The young blonde finally said after a time of silence. Adrien looked up quickly, shaking his head softly, turning back around to grab his coffee mug.

"Sorry… I was just thinking…" Emma didn't reply as she continued to watch her father for a moment as he stirred the coffee to cool it down. Even though her dad was easier to talk to, she knew from early on that she shouldn't bring up her mom really often with him. The blonde didn't know to what extent her parent's dislike for each other went or even where it stemmed from, but she was going to find out.

She reaches down for her croissant as she took the last bite and Emma started to roll the napkin her breakfast was initially sitting on. It was a weird habit she picked up at a young age, mainly when she was nervous or overthinking.

Adrien watched his daughter for a second as she rolled up the napkin before speaking,

"Emma?"

The blonde looked up, "Yea?"

Adrien gestured down to the napkin, "Are you okay? I haven't seen you roll up the napkin that small in a while."

Emma shrugged, "It's… nothing. Don't worry about it."

Her father shook his head, "Remember what I said? If something is bothering you? You can tell me, Emma."

The young girl stopped rolling the napkin and looked up at her dad before giving out a sigh, "It just deals with Mom, and I know you don't like talking about her… and you have school and… stuff."

Adrien paused for a moment, before reaching over and grabbing the napkin from Emma. "I know that your mom and I don't see… eye to eye, but I've noticed since you've been back that things don't seem okay between you two."

Emma watched as her dad continued to stare at the napkin for a moment longer before leaning himself against the counter, dropping his arm that held the small rolled up napkin looking Emma in the eye.

"I think you need to let her know what is going on, your Mom and I definitely do not catch onto things easily. She won't know there is something wrong unless you say so, okay?"

Before Emma has a chance to respond, Adrien stands fully back up and stretches out his back.

The young blonde thinks over her father's words as he walks over to the fridge, grabbing his creamer, and closing the door once more. There is a small moment of silence between the two as Adrien begins to mix the creamer into his coffee. He looked up in surprise suddenly with a small smile.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you. Aunt Chloe and Annalise got back in town yesterday."

Emma shot up slightly in her seat, "But- Annalise told me she wouldn't be back for a couple more weeks."

Adrien gave a small shrug, "Well it looks like she tries to pull the wool over your eyes. I spoke to Chloe yesterday, and she wanted to make sure Anna was back in time for school."

Emma smiled, although she didn't talk to Annalise often, mainly because the brunette was always on the move. Anna was one of Emma's closest friends, not just from growing up together, but they have bonded over having every…. similar situations.

"Definitely sounds like Anna. She probably wanted to surprise me." The young blonde said as she got up to throw away her trash.

"You guys are so loud." A third voice said, coming into the room. Both blondes looked over toward the entrance of the kitchen to see Louis with tired eyes still in his pajamas, holding the puppy.

Adrien gave a small chuckle, "I've been told that twice this morning. Sorry, Lou."

Louis gave a nod of acknowledgment to his dad before looking over at Emma, "It's your turn to take him outside."

Emma glanced down at the puppy who looked very comfortable being held in Louis' arms. "I don't know he looks so happy with you."

Louis looked at her with a small glare, "Your turn."

Emma sighs, slightly waving her hands in defeat. "Okay. Okay."

Her brother carefully handed her the small dog as Emma takes him outside, petting his head along the way.

Louis looked over at his father, "I don't know how I live like this."

Adrien gave him a look before shaking his head with a smile, as Louis tiredly made his way back to their bedroom.

"Alright. There is stuff in the fridge for lunch, and Uncle Nino has the day off so if you need anything don't be afraid to call him. If it's an emergency you guys can text or call me and the line for the school is written on the paper on the side of the fridge."

Emma waited for her dad to finish his monologue, he always did this the first couple weeks of them coming back here. She and Louis have learned just to let him run through his list.

"And especially with Milou... Text me to let me know if you guys decide to take him on a walk today, okay?" Adrien finished, as he pulled his jacket on all the way. He turned back around to look at both kids.

Emma gave a nod, "Of course! Don't worry, Dad. It's only for eight hours? It's not like you are going on a trip for two weeks."

Adrien sighed, "I know, but you know I worry."

Both kids nodded, as Adrien fixed his glasses, reaching down to grab his brown over-the-shoulder bag and went to the door.

"I'll see you both later for dinner. Remember please text me if you need something! Love you!"

"Love you too!" Emma and Louis both said at the same time as Adrien closed the door behind him.

Emma looked over at Louis, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow at her brother.

"Where do you think Dad would keep all of the stuff he wouldn't want us to find?"

Louis watched as his sister dug through the hall closet, making a mess of jackets and boxes in the hallway.

He looked up from his own search through the cast aside boxes, "I don't know if we are going to find anything, Em."

He heard a sigh from the closet before some movement as Emma stuck her head out.

"He has to keep it all somewhere." Louis looked back down at his current box which contained mostly old physics books alongside some older DVD movies.

"What if… he didn't." Louis said, dropping the current book he was holding back into the box.

Emma looked over at her brother, "Didn't keep it?"

The boy nodded, fixing his glasses as he closed the box back up. "Obviously they don't like each, Em. We figured that out already, why would he keep stuff that would make him miserable?"

The young blonde thought for a moment, not sure of how to reply to her brother. Maybe he was right? What proof did they have that their parents kept anything from their marriage? Emma doesn't even know what her mom's wedding dress looked like or if she even had one at all!

Emma shrugged as she looked at Louis. "It's not just their story though Louis. It's ours too. They couldn't get rid of it all because it's not just them, it's us. It's our pictures too, we had to have taken photos all together at some point."

She looked back at her brother, who looked as though he was thinking. "We mentioned Dad's closet, right? Before?"

Emma thought for a moment before nodding, "Do you think there might be something in there?"

Louis smiled before shrugging, you could tell he was unsure. "Like you said…. it's us."

Emma turned on the light to their dad's walk-in closet as Louis walked in behind her. He looked at the lines of clothes along the walls.

"You know, for a teacher, Dad has an excessively large wardrobe."

The blonde rolled her eyes as Louis' remark, knowing why their dad's closet is so large. She knew that a lot this probably came from their grandfather and their dad being, well their dad. Probably didn't have the heart to say no or give it away. Emma knows that her dad and Grandfather have had a lot of trouble in the past, but she still didn't know what about. It really hurt their relationship for a long time, as far as Emma knew they didn't start speaking again until she was born.

She looked around the colorful closet, jackets, shirts of every style hung around her. Emma could probably guess that their dad didn't use half of the stuff in the closet.

"Where do we even start?" Louis asked, looking back toward his sister as she gazed off still in her own world.

Emma paused for a moment as she took a look around the room, "I guess back to front?" She suggested as they started to move things around in the closet.

Emma worked around her brother as he did the same to her, they had found a few different things like random physics books and a box of graded papers.

Louis picked a few of the papers, "Why doesn't he give these back?" Emma gave a shrug as she started to push the box back into its place. She gave it a big shove, but it wouldn't push back in all of the ways.

The blonde gave a sigh, trying once more to push it in all of the ways.

"Really?"

Her brother looked over at her in confusion, "It's not going in?" Emma shook her head, pulling the box back out.

"I think it's stuck on something." Emma sat up slightly moving over to push the line of button-up shirts out of the way revealing another box hidden behind the clothes. The two stared at the box in confusion before Emma started to reach for it, pushing the previous box entirely out of the way.

"Do you think Dad was trying to hide it?" Louis asked, sitting down next to Emma as she continued to stare at the box.

She nodded her head, "I think so…"

Louis watched as Emma grabbed the lid of the box, but didn't move to open it. He waited a moment hoping that she would open the top, but his sister just continued to stare at it.

"What are you waiting on?" He finally asked, his sister didn't respond for a moment, and Louis was about to repeat himself before she finally answered.

"Do you feel like we are breaking his trust by opening the box?" Emma asked looking over at him.

Emma knew the consequences of doing this, maybe there really wasn't anything important inside. If there was… Would she ever be able to look her Dad in the eye knowing that she had completely invaded his privacy? She knew that this is what she wanted, to find the secrets, but Emma forgot that she would be breaking both of her parents' trust along the way.

She looks up at her brother, "If we open this… we can't take it back." She watched her brother look down to the ground for a moment thinking as he picks at the carpet.

The silence between the two of them feels deafening, the only sound Emma can hear is that of her own heartbeat which is quickening its pace.

Louis finally looks up, "Sometimes I feel like they already broke our trust you know? If there is something in that box, maybe we deserve to know what is in it?"

Emma thinks about her brother's words for a minute, knowing that it's true. Everyone has their secrets, but when you are affecting the people around you, it's going to have consequences. With that, Emma opens the box.

They both look down inside to see….. a Ladybug poster?

Emma raises an eyebrow as she reaches inside to pull it off the top, underneath is a poster of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Emma also grabs that one, showing them to Louis who instantly starts laughing.

"I think Dad probably had a high school crush!" Emma gives a chuckle but doesn't respond as she looks back into the box. Her eyes go wide at what lays before her.

"Oh no," Emma says, reaching in.

"What?" Louis says, looking in as Emma pulls out a Ladybug and Chat Noir Action Figures.

Louis reacts instantly falling backward onto the closet floor. Emma stares down at the figures for a moment. Why on earth would their Dad have these in the back of his closet?

Her brother takes a moment to compose himself before looking back up at Emma with a sigh, "Okay. He was definitely a Ladybug and Chat Noir fan."

Emma pulled out the last remaining papers from the top of the box, more pictures or magazine with the Miraculous Team on them. On top of one of the magazine were at least ten post-it notes?

Emma raised an eyebrow as she read over what they said.

"Adrien. CHEESE."

"IM DYING."

"CHEESE. CHEESE. CHEESE"

"Marinette is better."

"SO MATTER WHAT SUGARCUBE SAYS. I DIDN'T DO IT."

Emma shook her head at the notes, why would her dad keep all of this stuff?

Louis grabbed the magazine from her hands and reads over the notes, "Who is Sugarcube?"

The blonde shrugs looking back into the box… Lined up on the side were photo frames? Emma stared at them a moment longer, not reaching out just yet. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but why else would they be in the box?

Emma reaches down and grabs one of the frames out of the box, her eyes go wide at the picture.

It was her parent's wedding.

The blonde sat in shock for a moment, trying to figure out if this was actually real. Louis frowned at his sister before looking over at what was in her hands.

"Dad still has that?" He reached over and grabbed it out of her hands, getting a closer look. Louis studied the photo for a moment before looking up at Emma.

"They look so happy."

Emma didn't know how to reply and only shook her head as she gazed at the picture in her brother's hand. It was apparent that their Mom designed her own dress, Emma wouldn't have expected it to be any other way. What really caught her attention was the way her parents were looking at each other. You could see the history and love behind each of their gazes, Emma wished she could remember a time when her parents looked this happy next to each other.

"Yea…" The blonde says, still lost in thought. Louis looks up from the picture to look at his sister.

The next picture was a picture of her when she was probably no older than two sitting on the ground holding plush Ladybug and Chat Noir dolls. She knew her parents were fans of the heroes, even when she was younger. She remembered bits of pieces of the heroes from an early age…

The next was a picture of everyone together at the beach, she was older sitting on her Dad's lap with a hat on her head that was more than likely her Mom's. She was smiling brightly at the camera, while her mother held Louis in one arm, her other arm stretching out to take the photo.

The last picture in the box was definitely from before either of them were born. Emma could guess that they were probably in late teens or early twenties when this picture was taken. The two of them were sitting on a couch, Adrien in a hoodie, actually sitting on the sofa and Marinette, in a light blue knitted sweater, in front of him while the blond's arms were wrapped loosely around the neck of their mom in front of him.

Emma handed all of the photos over to Louis as looked back into the box again. Louis flipped through the pictures, pausing on each one for a moment. He looked up at Emma, "Do you think Dad would care if I took pictures?"

Emma looked back at Louis for a moment before shaking his head, "Like we said, it's our pictures too." Louis gives a nod as he pulls out his phone, Emma turns back toward the box reaching inside and pulling out the last couple of items.

They were... DVDs?

Emma opened up the large case as she began to read some of the written titles.

 _"Emma's first birthday." "Thanksgiving." "Louis First Christmas"_

"What?" Louis said

The blonde looks up not realizing that she had read those out loud. The girl holds them up for her brother to read. Louis reaches for the album, taking it away from Emma.

 _"First Trip to the Effiel Tower?" "Beach Day." "My Lady Moments?"_

Louis looks up, "Do you remember Dad ever recording?" Emma thought for a moment before shaking her head, "He must have stopped when we were younger."

Louis frowned for a moment before nodding as he continued to flip through the DVDs.

After a while, they decided that they would take the DVDs with them for now and watch them later. It had been a couple hours since they started their digging and figured it would be best to clean things up for now.

Emma gave the last box a push, but it accidentally hit the shelf, causing the whole thing to shake.

"Emma!" Louis yelled, scared from the sudden loud noise.

"Sorry!" Emma said, just as they heard something towards the door of the closet fall out of one of the cubbies. Both kids turn toward the noise, relieved it was just shoe box.

Emma stands up, stretching not realizing how long it had been since she had stood last. She went over and picked up the box, expecting it to be empty.

The blonde raised an eyebrow at the box when she felt something rattle around inside.

"What's wrong?" Louis asks, Emma shakes the box once more.

"There's something in here."

Emma sits back down on the ground, Louis not far behind as she opens the lid.

Emma tilted her head the contents, it was only two small jewelry boxes and a blue scarf.

Louis gave out a huff, "You got me all excited for nothing!" Emma sighed as she sat the box down in front of her reaching for one of the two boxes holding it up.

The front of the box has weird red detailing that made some sort of symbol. Emma started to open the lid.

"Emma! You are so slow!" Emma turns her head to look at her brother before narrowing her eyes and sticking her tongue, bringing her attention back to the box.

She opens the lid quickly curious to see what's inside.

"It's empty…"

Louis gave another huff, leaning back fully on the ground of the closet.

Emma sighed as she closed the box and set it down. She reached for the other box, "Maybe this one has something in it…"

Louis sat back up again, looking over Emma's shoulder staring intently on the box.

The blonde started to open the box slowly, a soft glow of pink began to pour from the box.

"Kids?" A voice shouted, Emma quickly shut the box, almost throwing it into the shoebox once more, getting it back into its place just as Nino called out for them again.

Emma looked back at Louis, who was putting the closet back in order. Emma decided to answer, "Uh...Yea! We're in Dad's room!"

There was no response for a few moments before Nino stuck his head into the closet, "What are you guys doing in here?"

Emma tried to think of response quickly, "We were…."

"Looking at all of Dad's clothes! Did you know he was a huge assortment of bow-ties? Like at least twenty of them."

Nino gave a laugh, "Yea that's definitely your grandfather's doing. I've been telling your Dad he just needs to get rid of them, but he keeps almost all of it for one reason or another."

Emma gave a nod, "So… what are you doing here Uncle Nino?"

The older man gave a laugh, "Oh Yea! I almost forgot. Your dad told me you guys were here all alone so I thought I'd come to check on you and see if you guys wanted to go to the store with me at since I'm heading that way now."

Emma looked back at her brother who nodded before looking back at Nino, "Sure! Let me just go get my shoes on."

As they started to make their way out of the closet, Emma looked back at the cubby hole one last time. Something was definitely inside of that other box, but what could it be?

 **Hi everyone! I'm so so sorry! I went back to school, fully set to continue writing this and….. school got in the way along with other things. We had a lot of new episodes and new information release though as well, so I wanted to try to start to incorporate as much of that as possible! I was hoping to catch up a little before the premiere of Season 3, but that quickly went out the window at since we got it much sooner than expected! I'm going to try to get onto a schedule now, next chapter is basically going to be a lot of one-shots all put together and will have a little Christmas in it! I hope to be releasing it a couple days after Christmas, but you all with definitely have chapter 8 before the New Year!**

 **Please keep reviewing it warms my heart to see how much you guys are enjoying this story! No worries I'm not giving up on this, but life can get a little crazy! Other things I'm working on for this are all of the pictures that the kids saw and a giant character sheet of all of the characters. I will be posting links when I have these done!**

 **See you all in the next chapter and Happy Holidays!**

 **~Haley**


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